Learn All About Cancer. Know the Risks, Signs, Symptoms and Treatments for Many Types of Cancer
Cancer is possibly the most prevalent disease in the world today and more and more cases are diagnosed each and every year. Although millions of dollars are spent on research annually the causes of cancer still remain a mystery and the best that scientists can so far do is provide a list of risk factors for each form of cancer that might make a person more susceptible to the disease.
So what exactly is cancer?
Cancer is a disease in which the body cells grow uncontrollably because their regulatory mechanisms have been damaged. Most forms of cancer cause a solid tumour to grow in a specific part of the body, most commonly the skin (skin cancer), lung (lung cancer), breast (breast cancer), bowel (colon cancer) or prostate gland (prostate cancer).
Luckily most cancers cause a number of physical symptoms which are experienced by the sufferer however some cancers don’t exhibit these symptoms until the cancer has spread to other sites within the body and the chances of cure and survival have dramatically dropped.
One of the purposes of this website is to teach the general symptoms of a number of common cancer types so that they can be recognized as early as possible. This means that people who suspect they have a form of cancer can check the common symptoms associated with the disease, and the risk factors that make a person more susceptible so that they can either put their mind at rest or alternatively make an appointment with their family doctor to discuss their symptoms.
A diagnosis of cancer no longer translates to a death sentence and advances in treatment options over the past few decades has meant that the survival rates for many of the cancer types are now very encouraging. Providing that the cancer is diagnosed while still in an early stage i.e. it is still contained in the primary site and has not spread to any other tissues, then most forms of cancer have an 80%+ survival rate for 5 years. This means that 80% of patients are still alive 5 years after the initial diagnosis. Unfortunately the longer a cancer has to grow before a diagnosis is made means a decrease in the survival rate and so it is vital that any form of cancer is recognized and treated as early as possible.
The second aim of this website is to inform the reader about the treatment options available for each type of cancer so that if the worst happens and you receive a positive diagnosis then you have the information you need to make an informed choice regarding your cancer treatment. Of course it is essential that you speak to your specialist as well however here you will be able to find the basics in an unbiased format.
This website is not written by a doctor however the information contained here is taken from specialist books on cancer and websites so that anybody reading it can be sure of its reliability and correctness. Hopefully it will offer you all of the information you need to research a particular cancer, its signs and symptoms and the treatments that are currently available for it without the difficult medical jargon of other cancer related sites.
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