How to Prevent and Treat Cancer
Cancer is an abnormal, uncontrolled growth of cells that can spread to other parts of the body. It begins when a single cell develops mutations (those that change the normal genetic code) and continues to grow and multiply without control or order. As it grows, it forms a mass of tissue called a tumour or malignancy.
A tumour is a mass of cancerous cells that can destroy healthy tissue and even the whole body. It may appear as a lump or bump or a series of bumps and is often painful or disfiguring. Cancer may be life-threatening if it is not treated.
There are many different kinds of cancer and each type is treated differently. But the good news is that a lot has happened in recent years to transform how this disease is diagnosed and treated. Cancers are now easier to find early and doctors have a lot more treatment options for when one treatment doesn’t work.
Scientists have learned a great deal about cancer over the past few decades and understand how it starts, how it grows and why some treatments work while others don’t. They are also able to identify what makes one cancer more likely to respond to certain treatments than another. This helps them design better, more effective treatments for people with different types of cancer.
The first step in beating cancer is to make sure you know how to prevent it from happening to you in the first place. You can lower your risk of getting cancer by not smoking, eating a balanced diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight. You should also get regular screening tests to help find any potential cancers at their earliest stage when they are usually easier and more treatable.
It is also important to learn more about the causes of cancer. There are chemicals called carcinogens that can cause mutations in your cells and raise your risk of developing cancer if you touch, eat or breathe them. These include things like asbestos, radon, and benzene found in products such as weed killers, plastics and some home products.
If you have cancer, your doctor will treat it with chemotherapy and radiation or with a combination of these methods. You will also be given medicines to stop your cancer cells from growing or dividing. These are sometimes called anticancer drugs.
You might also have immunotherapy, a newer treatment that uses medicines to help your immune system recognise and fight the cancer cells. Some medicines “mark” cancer cells so that your immune system can find them more easily, and other medicines make your own immune system stronger to better attack the tumours.
There is still a long way to go in the fight against cancer, but scientists are using artificial intelligence, DNA sequencing and precision oncology to accelerate research into ways to improve diagnosis and treatment. We hope that these technologies will lead to a day when all cancers are preventable or curable.
Cancer is an abnormal, uncontrolled growth of cells that can spread to other parts of the body. It begins when a single cell develops mutations (those that change the normal genetic code) and continues to grow and multiply without control or order. As it grows, it forms a mass of tissue called a tumour or malignancy. A tumour is a mass of cancerous cells that can destroy healthy tissue and even the whole body. It may appear as a lump or bump or a series of bumps and is often painful or disfiguring. Cancer may be life-threatening if it is not treated. There are many different kinds of cancer and each type is treated differently. But the good news is that a lot has happened in recent years to transform how this disease is diagnosed and treated. Cancers are now easier to find early and doctors have a lot more treatment options for when one treatment doesn’t work. Scientists have learned a great deal about cancer over the past few decades and understand how it starts, how it grows and why some treatments work while others don’t. They are also able to identify what makes one cancer more likely to respond to certain treatments than another. This helps them design better, more effective treatments for people with different types of cancer. The first step in beating cancer is to make sure you know how to prevent it from happening to you in the first place. You can lower your risk of getting cancer by not smoking, eating a balanced diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight. You should also get regular screening tests to help find any potential cancers at their earliest stage when they are usually easier and more treatable. It is also important to learn more about the causes of cancer. There are chemicals called carcinogens that can cause mutations in your cells and raise your risk of developing cancer if you touch, eat or breathe them. These include things like asbestos, radon, and benzene found in products such as weed killers, plastics and some home products. If you have cancer, your doctor will treat it with chemotherapy and radiation or with a combination of these methods. You will also be given medicines to stop your cancer cells from growing or dividing. These are sometimes called anticancer drugs. You might also have immunotherapy, a newer treatment that uses medicines to help your immune system recognise and fight the cancer cells. Some medicines “mark” cancer cells so that your immune system can find them more easily, and other medicines make your own immune system stronger to better attack the tumours. There is still a long way to go in the fight against cancer, but scientists are using artificial intelligence, DNA sequencing and precision oncology to accelerate research into ways to improve diagnosis and treatment. We hope that these technologies will lead to a day when all cancers are preventable or curable.