On World Cancer Day this data will blow your mind that Cancer is the second primary cause of death worldwide, anticipated for approximately 20 million new cases and 10 million deaths in 2020. The sum of people being diagnosed with cancer in 2040 is forecasted to be about 50% higher. Abdominal, prostate, colorectal, lung, and liver are the most general types of cancer in men while breast, cervical, thyroid, colorectal, and lung are the maximum types of cancer amongst women. Others can never imagine the challenges and the loss a cancer patient and their family goes through. And so to honor them, we celebrate World Cancer Day.
Let’s understand the nature of this disease. Cancer is when atypical cells grow unmanageably and cross beyond their boundaries, spreading to other organs. It is a fatal disease that can start growing with rapid speed in almost any organ and tissue in the body. The cancer load continues to increase globally, applying immense physical, emotional, and financial strain on individuals, families, and communities. Patients diagnosed with cancer have been diagnosed with mental illness as well in the later stage of cancer. They fight the challenges of having depression, constant feelings of hopelessness, fear of death, and whatnot.
When is Cancer Day celebrated and why?
World Cancer Day is celebrated on the 4th of February. Each year on this date, we commemorate the lives we lost due to this devastating illness and raise cognizance among the public regarding Cancer. World Cancer Day is to remind us that cancer affects millions of people around the world and everybody is in it together helping each other defeat this life-altering disease. World Cancer Day was commenced in the year 2000 at the first-ever World Summit Against Cancer for the new millennium organized in Paris. The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) is taking the lead universally intending to endorse cancer prevention, detection, and medication in all outlooks.
Objectives of World Cancer Day aim to:
- Raise awareness as a public health issue.
- Motivate the government and individuals to take necessary actions against the disease.
- Avert a lot of deaths each year.
- Assist people in recognizing the beforehand signs and symptoms of cancer and seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
- To educate and acquaint people with the major risk factors causing cancer as a certain amount of cases could be prevented if people change their lifestyle for once or other risk factors.
- To enlighten the importance of regular check-ups and screenings, early detection, and quality care.
Side Effects of Cancer
Cancer and cancer treatments can cause several side effects. Speaking up about the side effects and their severity you have can help you and your healthcare in treating them in various ways to reduce them to let you feel better.
- Anemia
- Appetite loss
- Constipation
- Hair loss (alopecia)
- Memory problems
- Nausea and vomiting
- Nerve problems
- Pain
- Skin changes
- Sleep disorders
- Mouth sores
- Fatigue
- Blood clots
- Hearing loss
- Sexual side effects
- Easy bruising
- Breathing problems
- Lymphedema
- Fertility
- Edema
- Heart damage
- Bleeding
Causes of Cancer
Some cancers in adults have been correlated to constant exposure to the risk factors. The following risk factors have been reported as a contributor in enhancing the chances of cancer:
- Family history, genetics, and inheritance: It is when genes that handle cell activities alter and produce abnormal cells that multiply and grow in the body by connecting to the adjoining organs and spreading the cancer all over the body.
- Lifestyle choices: This includes several aspects that people opt for purposely in their daily choices.
- Diet and physical fitness: Choosing high-fat meals, excess sugar intake, and not enough exercise can increase the risk of certain types of cancers.
- Smoke, tobacco & alcohol: Smoking cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigarettes, eating substances-induced tobacco, and consuming alcohol are the unhealthiest choices and hold the highest risk of cancer.
- Obesity- Being overweight doesn’t necessarily mean you will get cancer at some point. However, people with overweight are more likely to develop cancer than the person who has a healthy weight. Having a healthy weight reduces the chances of 13 types of cancers.
- UV exposure: Exposure to UV radiation from the sun directly affects on increasing the risk of skin cancer.
- Environmental exposure: Pollutants, pesticides, and certain viruses inhaled and spread inside the body can significantly lead to cancer.
- Higher concentration of chemotherapy and radiation: Higher doses of cancer treatments may cause a second malignancy in later life as these strong anticancer drugs can alter cells.
Few things you must do to fight Cancer
Cancer prevention methods keep on developing over time. However, you can reduce the chances of getting cancer by changing your lifestyle factors and doing certain things.
1. Don’t use tobacco: Smoking cigarettes triggers various types of cancers in the body, including lung, pancreas, voice box, and bladder, kidneys, throat, and cervix cancer. Even experiencing passive smoking can increase the chances of lung cancer.
Eating tobacco and other materials is similarly unsafe for health to be nonresistant to the danger of growing cancer of the mouth, esophagus, and pancreas.
Good things take time and patience so just keep trying before quitting tobacco forever, even if you have made several attempts. Talk to your healthcare or professional helplines to help you quit and to give you ways to quit and double the chances of success.
2. Maintain a healthy diet: Staying on a healthy diet can decrease the odds of growing cancer. Eating fruits and vegetables, limiting processed meat, low sugar intake, low-calorie meals, and many other food picks are nourishing in each aspect of the body. Dodge junk food and preserved food products.
3. Maintain a healthy weight and regular physical activity: Keeping beneficial weight management reduces the chance of specificsorts of cancer like breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, and kidney. With a healthy diet, include physical activity in their routine to maintain a healthy weight. Generally, 30-45 minutes of physical workout every day should be sufficient.
4. Protect yourself from the sun: Excess exposure to the sunlight and using tanning beds may increase the chances of skin cancer (melanoma).
• Steer clear of going outside in the midday time (10 am to 4 pm).
• Use lots of broad-spectrum sunscreen induced with SPF of 30 and above, in autumn and winters too.
5. Limit Alcohol: We would rather suggest skipping it altogether. Alcohol does no good for your body in any way. Ask for help from a healthcare helpline aiming to help you.
A few other precautions you should consider are:
1. Get vaccinated.
2. Practice safe sex.
3. Get your screening and regular checkups done.
Technologies for the treatment of the Cancer
There are several medications like Xovoltib 20mg and Ramiven (available at affordable price on Specialitymedz) that help fight cancer. But what once appeared impossible is now a reality and we are grateful to technological innovations. With continued use of these technological treatments can help the progression of the fight against cancer and help save millions of lives.
Crispr: Short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. This gene-editing technology works on the targeted DNA, one of the enzymes produced by the Crispr technique attaches to the DNA, slits it, and shuts that gene off.
Artificial Intelligence: It is a computer program used to create a virtual mode of you on which physicians could try the necessary methods and procedures for treating cancer to know how well it affects your body before personalizing you. It is also used to improve cancer detection, tumor progression, and risk assessment.
Telehealth: It is the facility provided to people for connecting to doctors and professional healthcare providers to receive high-quality treatment remotely, even
When you are not in the same location, or you are in a pandemic by follow-up visits, checkups, video appointments, or over the phone.
Robotic surgery: This is when a surgery is performed by a technologically created robotic surgeon. It is specially trained surgeons that remove cancer from patients with the help of surgical tools and a computer console.
Immunotherapy: It is a type of cancer treatment by utilizes the substances produced by the body or in the laboratory to enhance the immune system to find and kill the cancer cells.
Nanotechnology: Nanoparticles and Nano devices can help boost the immune system to suppress cancer cells and can kill tumor cells with the use of nanoparticle therapy.
Conclusion
Cancer is a serious illness that can change the world around the affected person and their family. The world has lost uncountable lives due to this deadly disease and to honor them and increase awareness, we mark 4th February as World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day is announced to learn more about the importance of cancer detection, cancer treatments, cancer prevention, the social stigma of cancer, and fighting the disease together globally. In combination with healthy lifestyle changes and regular screenings, we can lower the risk of developing cancer from our ends. There is much technological advancement to treat cancer now that we never had or imagined.
Category: Anti Cancer