CANCER,CAUSES,TYPES,TREATMENT,PREVENTION
WHAT IS CANCER?
Cancer is a disease that develops when cells in your body divide at a faster rate than normal. These abnormal cells grow into a lump — or tumor.
How Dangerous Is Cancer?
Cancer is potentially fatal. Currently, it’s the leading cause of death worldwide. However, fatality rates largely depend on the type of cancer and how far it has spread. Many types of cancer are successfully treated with prompt care.
WHAT ARE THE FIVE MAIN TYPES OF CANCER?
There are five main types of cancer. These include:
- Carcinoma. This type of cancer affects organs and glands, such as the lungs, breasts, pancreas and skin. Carcinoma is the most common type of cancer.
- Sarcoma. This cancer affects soft or connective tissues, such as muscle, fat, bone, cartilage or blood vessels.
- Melanoma. Sometimes cancer can develop in the cells that pigment your skin. These cancers are called melanoma.
- Lymphoma. This cancer affects your lymphocytes or white blood cells.
- Leukemia. This type of cancer affects blood.
WHAT CAUSES BREAST CANCER?
Breast cancer develops when abnormal cells in your breast divide and multiply. But experts don’t know exactly what causes this process to begin in the first place.
However, research indicates that are several risk factors that may increase your chances of developing breast cancer. These include:
- Age. Being 55 or older increases your risk for breast cancer.
- Sex. Women are much more likely to develop breast cancer than men.
- Family history and genetics. If you have parents, siblings, children or other close relatives who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, you’re more likely to develop the disease at some point in your life. About 5% to 10% of breast cancers are due to single abnormal genes that are passed down from parents to children, and that can be discovered by genetic testing.
- Smoking. Tobacco use has been linked to many different types of cancer, including breast cancer.
- Alcohol use. Research indicates that drinking alcohol can increase your risk for certain types of breast cancer.
- Obesity. Having obesity can increase your risk of breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence.
- Radiation exposure. If you’ve had prior radiation therapy — especially to your head, neck or chest — you’re more likely to develop breast cancer.
- Hormone replacement therapy.People who use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer.
There are many other factors that can increase your chances of developing breast cancer. Talk to your healthcare provider to find out if you’re at risk.
Symptoms
Prostate cancer may cause no signs or symptoms in its early stages.
Prostate cancer that's more advanced may cause signs and symptoms such as:
- Trouble urinating
- Decreased force in the stream of urine
- Blood in the urine
- Blood in the semen
- Bone pain
- Losing weight without trying
- Erectile dysfunction
- Womb cancer is cancer that affects the womb.
- The womb (uterus) is where a baby grows during pregnancy.
- Most womb cancer usually starts in the lining of the womb (endometrium), this is also known as endometrial cancer.
- How serious the womb cancer is depends on how big it is, if it has spread and your general health
Main symptoms of womb cancer can include:
- bleeding or spotting from the vagina after the menopause
- heavy periods from your vagina that is unusual for you
- vaginal bleeding between your periods
- a change to your vaginal discharge
Other symptoms of womb cancer can include:
- a lump or swelling in your tummy or between your hip bones (pelvis)
- pain in your lower back or between your hip bones (pelvis)
- pain during sex
- blood in your pee
Who is more likely to get womb cancer
Anyone with a womb can get womb cancer. This includes women, trans men, non-binary people and intersex people with a womb.
You cannot get womb cancer if you've had surgery to remove your womb (hysterectomy).
Having a high level of a hormone called oestrogen is one of the main things that can increase your chance of getting womb cancer.
You may have high levels of oestrogen if you:
- are overweight
- take some types of hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
- have never given birth
- have polycystic ovary syndrome
- went through the menopause after the age of 55
You might also be more likely to get womb cancer if you have:
- diabetes
- a family history of bowel, ovarian or womb cancer
- inherited a rare gene that causes Lynch syndrome
- taken medicines to treat like Tamoxifen (used to treat breast cancer)
- had radiotherapy on your pelvis
Cancer treatment options include:
- Surgery. The goal of surgery is to remove the cancer or as much of the cancer as possible.
- Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
- Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-powered energy beams, such as X-rays or protons, to kill cancer cells. Radiation treatment can come from a machine outside your body (external beam radiation), or it can be placed inside your body (brachytherapy).
Bone marrow transplant. Your bone marrow is the material inside your bones that makes blood cells from blood stem cells. A bone marrow transplant, also knowns as a stem cell transplant, can use your own bone marrow stem cells or those from a donor.
A bone marrow transplant allows your doctor to use higher doses of chemotherapy to treat your cancer. It may also be used to replace diseased bone marrow.
- Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, also known as biological therapy, uses your body's immune system to fight cancer. Cancer can survive unchecked in your body because your immune system doesn't recognize it as an intruder. Immunotherapy can help your immune system "see" the cancer and attack it.
- Hormone therapy. Some types of cancer are fueled by your body's hormones. Examples include breast cancer and prostate cancer. Removing those hormones from the body or blocking their effects may cause the cancer cells to stop growing.
- Targeted drug therapy. Targeted drug treatment focuses on specific abnormalities within cancer cells that allow them to survive.
- Cryoablation. This treatment kills cancer cells with cold. During cryoablation, a thin, wandlike needle (cryoprobe) is inserted through your skin and directly into the cancerous tumor. A gas is pumped into the cryoprobe in order to freeze the tissue. Then the tissue is allowed to thaw. The freezing and thawing process is repeated several times during the same treatment session in order to kill the cancer cells.
- Radiofrequency ablation. This treatment uses electrical energy to heat cancer cells, causing them to die. During radiofrequency ablation, a doctor guides a thin needle through the skin or through an incision and into the cancer tissue. High-frequency energy passes through the needle and causes the surrounding tissue to heat up, killing the nearby cells.
- Clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies to investigate new ways of treating cancer. Thousands of cancer clinical trials are underway.
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