Cancer is a layman term. Doctors tend to use the word 'neoplasm'. What layman understands from cancer is that your own body cells that used to be your friends have suddenly become your enemies. Doctors call this phenomena uncontrolled growth of neoplastic cells that tend to invade surrounding tissue and to spread to other distant sites of your body.

Now, how do doctors systematically deal with cancer as diseases?. Each cancer is distinguished by its pattern. This involves the nature, the site, and the clinical course of the disease. When we talk about cancer we are actually referring to possibly hundreds of diseases. Some of the causes are known, some are unknown, some in between. However, many potential causes are recognized.

More than 80% of cases of cancer are attributed to cigarette smoking, exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, ionizing radiation, and ultraviolet rays. Overexposure to the sun is the major cause of skin cancer in Western countries. . Many viruses induce malignant tumors in animals. Viral particles are also detected in some human tumors. Human papilloma virus is a known cause of cancer of cervix in woman and Epstein-Barr virus causes nasopharyngeal cancer. The high incidence of various kinds of cancer in certain families suggests that genetic susceptibility is an important factor. An excess rate of malignant tumors in organ transplant recipients after immunosuppressive therapy indicates that the immune system plays a major role in controlling the proliferation of cancer cells. The basic defect can be attributed to failure to control programmed cell growth. It may be a mutation, a biochemical anomaly or a combination of factors.

The incidence of different kinds of cancer varies markedly with sex, age, ethnic group, and geographic location. The age-adjusted death rate for oral cancer is almost 10 times higher in Hong Kong than in Denmark, and that for prostate cancer is more than 10 times greater in Sweden than in Japan. However, leukemia mortality is similar throughout the world. In the United States, cancer is second only to heart disease as a cause of mortality and is a leading cause of death in children between 3 and 14 years of age.

The most common sites for the development of malignant tumors are the lung, breast, colon, uterus, oral cavity, and bone marrow. Surgery remains the major form of treatment. Irradiation is also widely used as preoperative, postoperative, or even standalone as deep X-ray primary therapy. Chemotherapy, with single or multiple anti-neoplastic agents, is often highly effective. Many malignant lesions are curable if detected early.

Depending on the site, the warning signals may be a change in bowel or bladder habits, a non-healing sore, unusual bleeding or discharge, a thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere, indigestion or dysphagia, an obvious change in a wart or mole, or a nagging cough or persistent hoarseness. These fits certain sophisticated patterns. Doctors can tell the difference between important clues and unimportant patterns. Without adequate medical training, patient's common sense approach to self diagnosis are usually  myths rather than facts.

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DR SOON keeps you up to date on the latest Information & Strategies to help you prevent cancer, control cancer or live life as a bonus with cancer. If you have problems related to this article you may e-mail me at doctor@soontongkiong.com quoting the contents of this article. You may also post your question on the bulletin board.

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About the author:
DR SOON is a medical practitioner. He holds four degrees. MBBS (University of Malaya), MBA (University of East Asia), LLB (Hons) (University of Wolverhampton), Master of Medicine (Edith Cowan University)