February is National Cancer Prevention Month!

February: National Cancer Prevention Month
By: Lara Endreszl Published: Monday, 2 February 2009

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One of the most dreaded words in the English language. No one ever wants to be sitting in a gown in his or her doctor’s office and hear the “C” word. A cancer diagnosis is made scarier by the fact that it is not often heard in the same breath as another "C" word: cure. Cancer sneaks up on you, and leaves doctors, researchers, surgeons, and patients wanting to know more: the how, the why, the when. With February being National Cancer Prevention Month, we can finally see cure and cancer next to each other by putting our efforts into finding cures for those cancers previously thought to be incurable and increasing survival rates for all cancers.Cancer is a very confusing disease because it cannot be defined as one specific symptom. When you have shingles or strep throat, chicken pox or the flu, there are specific symptoms and specific ways to cure them. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center describes cancer as, “a large and complex family of malignancies that can affect virtually every organ in the body.” Cancer is the second largest killer in the United States after heart disease, with over 1 million new cases diagnosed each year, and is predicted to overtake the #1 spot by 2010. Cancer isn’t specific to any age, race, or gender and can strike at any time. Cancer is most often characterized by tumors. Benign tumors are not cancerous and are not fatal but can cause problems with health relating to their size and location inside the body. Tumors are essentially just a growth of cells that multiply and divide to replace old ones. When the cells divide too much they form excess tissue that becomes a tumor and malignant—or cancerous—they tend to grow rapidly and impede other tissues, organs, and can sometimes travel through the bloodstream. When the cancerous tumor or tumors spread to different parts of the body from their origin point it is called metastasis.
The best way for cancer prevention to be spread is by having regular cancer screenings. Men over the age of 50 should have a prostate cancer screening once a year and women after a certain age are also recommended to have breast cancer screenings and continue to have pap smears to rule out cervical cancer once every twelve months. Due to the persistence of health care providers and the widespread media coverage of cancer prevention techniques, including screenings and adopting a healthier lifestyle, the death rates of cancer in the past few years has decreased especially among men.
Cancer comes in many different forms but is characterized into four categories: Carcinomas, Sarcomas, Leukemias, and Lymphomas. Carcinomas are tumors originating in the tissues of the organs, which makes up about 80 percent of all cases. Sarcomas are found in the bone, fat, muscle, or cartilage. Leukemias are found in the blood-forming organs or generally inside the blood, and Lymphomas account for 20 types of cancers that affect the filters of the body.
If cancer is detected in an early stage, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are options for shrinking tumors and/or making them disappear altogether. When tumors disappear the final stage is called remission, following up with the patient to make sure the tumors don’t grow back in the same (or different) spots.
With 80 percent of cancers having no known cause, the time for prevention is now. By enjoying a diverse and healthy diet and keeping an active physical routine can help ward off stresses and possibly other environmental factors that can lead to the development of cancer. Besides being over 50 years old and indulging in a high-cholesterol and fat diet, among the rest of the factors are: obesity, cigarettes, long-term chemical exposure, unprotected sun risk, certain viruses and immune disorders, and radiation. The other 20 percent are hereditary. Take advantage of free advice and try to adjust your lifestyle accordingly—and not just during February—so you or your loved ones don’t hear the “C” word at the next doctor’s visit.
For more information, visit the American Cancer Society website.