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Cancer a major threat to themodern society, which alarms to follow healthy life style. There were anestimated 14.1 million cancer cases around the world in 2012, of these 7.4million cases were in men and 6.7 million in women. This number is expected toincrease to 24 million by 2035.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer can start any place in thebody. It starts when cells grow out of control and crowd out normal cells. Thismakes it hard for the body to work the way it should.

Cancer can be treated very wellfor many people. In fact, more people than ever before lead full lives aftercancer treatment.

Here we will explain what canceris and how it’s treated. 

Cancer basics

Cancer is not just one disease.

There are many types of cancer.It’s not just one disease. Cancer can start in the lungs, the breast, thecolon, or even in the blood. Cancers are alike in some ways, but they aredifferent in the ways they grow and spread.

How are cancers alike?

The cells in our bodies all havecertain jobs to do. Normal cells divide in an orderly way. They die when theyare worn out or damaged, and new cells take their place. Cancer is when thecells start to grow out of control. The cancer cells keep on growing and makingnew cells. They crowd out normal cells. This causes problems in the part of thebody where the cancer started.

Cancer cells can also spread toother parts of the body. For instance, cancer cells in the lung can travel tothe bones and grow there. When cancer cells spread, it’s called metastasis(meh-TAS-tuh-sis). When lung cancer spreads to the bones, it’s still calledlung cancer. To doctors, the cancer cells in the bones look just like the onesfrom the lung. It’s not called bone cancer unless it started in the bones.

How are cancers different?

Some cancers grow and spreadfast. Others grow more slowly. They also respond to treatment in differentways. Some types of cancer are best treated with surgery; others respond betterto drugs called chemotherapy (key-mo-THER-uh-pee). Often 2 or more treatmentsare used to get the best results.

When someone has cancer, thedoctor will want to find out what kind of cancer it is. People with cancer needtreatment that works for their type of cancer.

What are tumors?

Most cancers form a lump called atumor or a growth. But not all lumps are cancer. Doctors take out a piece ofthe lump and look at it to find out if it’s cancer. Lumps that are not cancerare called benign (be-NINE). Lumps that are cancer are called malignant (muh-LIG-nunt).

There are some cancers, likeleukemia (cancer of the blood), that don’t form tumors. They grow in the bloodcells or other cells of the body.

What stage is the cancer?

The doctor also needs to know ifand how far the cancer has spread from where it started. This is called thecancer stage. You may have heard other people say that their cancer was stage 1or stage 2. Knowing the stage of the cancer helps the doctor decide what typeof treatment is best.

For each type of cancer there aretests that can be done to figure out the stage of the cancer. As a rule, alower stage (such as a stage 1 or 2) means that the cancer has not spread verymuch. A higher number (such as a stage 3 or 4) means it has spread more. Stage4 is the highest stage.

Ask your doctor to explain thestage of your cancer and what it means for you.

How is cancer treated?

The most common treatments forcancer are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation (ray-dee-A- shun).

Surgery can be used to take outthe cancer. The doctor might also take out some or all of the body part thecancer affects. For breast cancer, part (or all) of the breast might beremoved. For prostate cancer, the prostate gland might be taken out. Surgery isnot used for all types of cancer. For example, blood cancers like leukemia arebest treated with drugs.

Chemo (short for chemotherapy) isthe use of drugs to kill cancer cells or slow their growth. Some chemo can begiven by IV (into a vein through a needle), and others are a pill you swallow.Because chemo drugs travel to nearly all parts of the body, they are useful forcancer that has spread.

Radiation is also used to kill orslow the growth of cancer cells. It can be used alone or with surgery or chemo.Radiation treatment is like getting an x-ray. Sometimes it’s given by putting a“seed” inside the cancer to give off the radiation.

What treatment is best for me?

Your cancer treatment will dependon what’s best for you. Some cancers respond better to surgery; others respondbetter to chemo or radiation. Knowing the type of cancer you have is the firststep toward knowing which treatments will work best for you.

The stage of your cancer willalso help the doctor decide on the best treatment for you. A stage 3 or 4cancer is likely to respond better to treatments that treat the whole body,like chemo.

Your health and the treatment youprefer will also play a part in deciding about cancer treatment. Not all typesof treatment will work for your cancer, so ask what options you have. Andtreatments do have side effects, so ask about what to expect with eachtreatment.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.It’s your right to know what treatments are most likely to help and what theirside effects may be.

Healthy life style:

Everyone can take steps to reducetheir risk of cancer by choosing healthy options including quitting smoking,keeping physically active and choosing healthy food and drinks

Tobacco use is the single largestpreventable cause of cancer globally. Quitting smoking will have a majorpositive impact on an individual’s health and that of their families andfriends. The good news is that quitting at any age is beneficial, increasinglife expectancy and improving quality of life

Individuals can also reduce theirrisk of many common cancers by maintaining a healthy weight, and makingphysical activity part of their everyday lives. Being overweight or obeseincreases the risk of ten cancers - bowel, breast, uterine, ovarian,pancreatic, oesophagus, kidney, liver, advanced prostate and gallbladdercancers

Specific changes to a person’sdiet can also make a difference – for example, individuals can limit theirintake of red meat and avoid processed meat.

 Overall, more than a third of common cancerscould be prevented by a healthy diet, being physically active and maintaining ahealthy body weight.

Let us unite were ‘We can. I can "explorehow everyone – as a collective or as individuals – can do their part to reducethe global burden of cancer.