My name is Jennifer, I'm a 24 years old, and I work for the American Cancer Society. I started this page on 10/8/06. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, and her cancer inspired me to get the word out about cancer, and thus, inspired me to get a job working for the ACS. I wanted to start this page to get the word out about cancer, and to help people learn that many cancers out there are aquired, and therefore, can be prevented.
http://www.cancer.org has everything you need to know about cancer prevention, and you can even donate to any type of cancer you want. Please visit the website, and tell others about this page to get the word out! Thank you all so much!
What is cancer?
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death. Cancer is caused by both external factors (tobacco, chemicals, radiation, and infectious organisms) and internal factors (inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from metabolism). These causal factors may act together or in sequence to initiate or promote carcinogenesis. Ten or more years often pass between exposure to external factorss and detectable cancer. Cancer is treated by surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormones, and immunotherapy.
Can cancer be prevented?
All cancers caused by cigarette smoking and heavy use of alcohol could be prevented completely. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2006, about 170,000 cancer deaths are expected to be caused by tobacco use.
Scientific evidence suggests that about one-third of the 564,830 cancer deaths expected to occur in 2006 will be related to nutrition, physical inactivity, and overweight or obesity, and thus could also be prevented. Certain cancers are related to infectious agents, such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), human papillomavirus (HPV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), helicobacter, and others, and could be prevented through behavioral changes, vaccines, or antibiotics. In addition, many of the more than 1 million skin cancers that are expected to be diagnosed in 2006 could have been prevented by protection from the sun's rays.
Regular screening examinations by a health care professional can result in the prevention of cervical and colorectal cancers through the discovery and removal of percursor lesions. Screening can detect cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, cervix, prostate, oral cavity, and skin at early stages. For most of these cancers, early detection has been proven to reduce mortality. A heightened awareness of breast changes or skin changess may also result in detection of these tumors at earlier stages. Cancers that can be prevented or detected earlier by screening account for at least half of all new cancer cases. The 5-year elative survival rate for these cancer is about 86%, a percentage that reflects real reductions in mortality as well as earlier diagnosis because of screening.
Who is at risk of developing cancer?
Anyone can develop cancer. Since the risk of being diagnosed with cancer increases as individuals age, most cases occur in adults who are middle-aged or older. About 76% of all cancers are diagnosed in persons 55 and older. Cancer researchers use the word risk in different ways, most commonly expressing risk as lifetime risk or relative risk.
Lifetime risk refers to the probability that an individual, over the course of a lifetime, will develop or die from cancer. In the US, men have slightly less than 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer; for women, the risk is a little more than 1 in 3.
Relative risk is a measure of the strength of the relationship between risk factors and a particular cancer. It compares the risk of developing cancer in persons with a certain exposure or trait to the risk in persons who do not have this characteristic. For example, male smokers are about 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers, so their relative risk is 23. Most relative risks are not this large. For example, women who have a first-degree relative (mother, sister, or daughter) with a history of breat cancer have about twic the risk of developing breat cnacer compared to women who do not have a family history.
All cancers involve the malfunction of genes that control cell growth and division. About 5% to 10% of all cancers are strongly hereditary, in that an inherited genetic alteration confers a very high risk of developing a particular cancer. However, most cancers do not result from inherited gene, but rather are the resuly of damage (mutations) to genes that occurs during one's lifetime. Mutations may result from internal factors, such as hormones or the digestion of nutrients within cells, or external factors, such as tobacco, chemicals, and sunlight. (These nonhereditary mutations are called somatic mutations.)
Again, please recommend this page to all of your friends to get the word out!
This website is a great reference...Check it out!:
www.bionutrition.org
