The Four Main Questions Asked About Cancer

The Four Main Questions Asked About CancerWhere?

Any part of the body can be affected by cancer, but those organs consisting of constantly dividing and regenerating tissue are most vulnerable to malignant change. These include the lung, breast, intestine, skin, stomach and pancreas along with the bone marrow and lymph glands. The testes and ovaries not uncommonly give rise to cancer, and any parts of the soft tissues of the body, the muscles, lips and tongue for example, are no exception. Those parts of the body which do not divide rapidly (such as nervous tissue and the brain itself) seldom give rise to malignancy although they may well represent sites of development of secondary cancer due to spread from some more distant location. Cancers are often therefore referred to as ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’ depending on whether they started in the organ in which they develop or whether they developed there as a secondary result of cancer elsewhere.

How Common is Cancer?

Because we hear so much about it, it must seem to many people in this day and age that cancer is a modern epidemic. In fact cancer has been present since time immemorial and does not affect just humans but domestic and farm animals, sea creatures and birds alike. Also as people live longer they become increasingly likely to die from cancer than from anything else because so many other disorders are now treatable. Cancer certainly becomes more prevalent as people grow older, but even then it still only accounts for a fifth of the total number of deaths. In total it affects more than 25 per cent of people in Britain at some stage in their lives and remains the second commonest cause of death after heart disease.

Statistically it seems that cancer tends to be commonest either in childhood or in the older age groups, one explanation being that the immune system that helps to fight the development of cancer is less efficient at these two chronological extremes. Between the ages of 20 and 30, a person is very unlikely to develop cancer, but the risk more or less doubles between 30 and 40, and then doubles again for every succeeding decade. Post-mortems on people who die in their nineties often reveal a previously undetected cancer, and in men of this age group in particular, the discovery of a developing cancer of the prostate, for example, is almost predictable.

What Causes Cancer?

There is no doubt that a person’s risk of developing cancer is partly determined by their genetic make-up. But there are also environmental triggers that can bring about cancerous changes in susceptible people. We know that smoking undoubtedly contributes to cancer of the lung, mouth, larynx, bladder, pancreas and kidney. We know that excessive exposure to the sun contributes to skin cancer. We know that a high-fat, low fiber diet contributes to malignancy in the bowel and that a high-fat diet is thought to account for up to 35 per cent of cancer deaths overall. We know that chronic liver damage caused by infections such as some types of hepatitis may contribute to liver cancer, and that HIV infection leads to AIDS-related cancer, and that human papilloma virus infection of the cervix is a factor in the development of cancer of the cervix. Radiation and other occupational hazards are also well-known trigger factors for the development of malignant growths. However, the genetic susceptibility of any one person to cancer modifies the impact of these environmental factors. A woman may avoid a high-fat, low-fiber diet, not smoke and keep extremely fit all her life, but if she has more than two first-degree relatives (mother, sister or grandmother) with cancer of the breast or ovaries, her chances of developing a similar cancer are quite definitely increased.

Signs and Symptoms

The variety and severity of the symptoms and signs that cancer produces are enormous. Much depends on the location of the cancer, the tissue in which it originated and the rate of growth. Some cancers arise with obvious and visible symptoms such as lumps, bumps or skin changes. Or it may be that patients have unexplained bleeding such as when they notice blood in the urine, blood mixed with the bowel motions or bloodstained sputum when coughing. Sometimes an obstruction of a passageway may occur, such as in the intestine, leading to pain and altered bowel function. Alternatively pain may be the predominant symptom as an enlarging growth presses against sensitive nerves. Occasionally tumor cells can produce hormones, giving rise to effects in far distant parts of the body and of course generalized features such as weight loss, anemia and fatigue are common to many different types of cancer.  Any of these occurring at any age should be regarded as suspicious and brought to the attention of your doctor.

Sarah writes for Bio Balance a company in Ireland that helps with depression.

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