Cure Cancer
Cancers of some types & some regions of our body are curable. But, few of the unfortunate victims of
cancer could be lucky enough to have one of those types. There are ways of avoiding this deadly malady, although, not all of us, and neither all of these diseases, could be considered as one group.
How could we prevent ourselves from getting into the cancerous trap? First we should learn about all the ‘
carcinogens’, or the agents which either start, or promote cancerous growth, and keep ourselves away and out of their contact. Early diagnosis of cancer itself would be as good as prevention of the same; because most early cancers are curable. Just as time is money, time here is life.
Let us look at the list of potentially
curable cancers. Most of them are pediatric cancers, like blood cancer, (some types), lymphomas (cancer of lymph-glands), wilm’s tumor (kidney-cancer), in addition to testicular cancer & myeloma.
Before we enumerate all the possible causes of cancer, let us understand the basics of how
cancer starts in the body. Change of a normal cell into cancer is not sudden or a one –step transformation cancerous changes occur at the level of the gene inside the cell, in various stages like mutation, activation of tumor genes or suppression of tumor-suppressor genes, which is followed by selective uncontrolled growth of the abnormal clone of cells. This results in the changed structure and function of the cell, which eventually be comes a
cancer-cell. Multiplying of such cancer-cells results in the formation of a tumor, with all its symptoms which later become manifest in the person. Any substance, or environmental agent, in whatever manner, can adversely influence or causes such a change in the cell – structure and can thus cause cancer. These can be physical agents, chemical compounds, social agents like tobacco & alcohol, biological contaminants radiation, drugs and hormones, longstanding irritants & inflammation and finally, cancer could be inherited.
Amongst the physical factors constant exposure to asbestos and to electric & magnetic fields, or to radiation has been found to be damaging. There are host of chemical toxic to man, especially benzene, coal –tar, arsenic, silica, vinyl and cadmium.
Tobacco has long been known to be a potent carcinogen, but, controversial in the eyes of many, as it does not produce
cancer as a uniform phenomenon.
Modern life has brought in quite a few artificial agents into our daily life, like colorants, sweeteners, flavoring and seasoning agents etc., which could be carcinogenic for susceptible people.
Biological agents like viruses are a major cause of
cancer. Foremost amongst these are, retro-viruses like HIV (AIDS) virus, hepatitis –B & C, papilloma virus and the E B virus. Drugs taken on a doctor’s prescription are safe. But any miss-use, overdose or prolonged use of drugs can give rise to cancer.
Along with the several features and traits of our parents and our fore-fathers, we also inherit their tendencies to develop cancer, examples being cancer of the being
cancer of the breast, and uterus and skin, etc., some people can inherit genetic diseases, like Xeroderma pigmentosa, which eventually, in later life turns into cancer.
Now, how do we tackle all these and change ourselves and our life style to prevent such preventable cancer? All physical agents can be taken away from contact as much as possible. Similarly all chemical agent and other environmental carcinogens have to be alienated.
The habit of tobacco is more psychologically dependant than physical. If you have the will to stop smoking (before it stops you!) you shall have several ways of doing the same.
Much the same could be said about alcohol. There are no scientific prescribed guidelines for safe limits of its intake, as is largely believed. It’s never too late to stop drinking and start living (a new life) all over again.
We can escape attack by several biological agents like viruses by keeping good and safe habits, which are otherwise basic societal norms. Most or the dreaded viruses like
Hepatitis – B now can be prevented by effective vaccination. Early treatment of other viral illnesses is also important.
An alert and responsible citizen would never indulge in unnecessary and inappropriate use of medication and hormones. Self medication is dangerous, especially on a long- term basis, and doctors would be helpless in such unfortunate events.
As it has been mentioned before, early detection of cancer paves the way to a possible cure. But how could we detect
cancers early enough? The first and foremost is awareness, of the causes and its early features and symptoms. This requires personal involvement and constant monitoring of one self to look for early signs of cancer better still, could be a screening of one–self by a doctor who would perform a detailed and systematic physical examination depending on the person’s lifestyle, age and profession, and also do all the requisite investigation to check for any lurking cancer in the body. Such an exercise has to be a periodic one, which gives it full utility and cost effectiveness.
Can cancer be prevented? A new class of agents, called ‘chemo preventives’ mostly of the anti –oxidant class, like vitamin –A and C zinc, selenium etc., have shown protective against cancer; although not in reasonable terms.
One should avoid obesity, decrease total fat intake, eat good quantities of high fiber food with natural vitamins, limit consumption of alcoholic beverages, curtail use of smoked & nitrite – cured foods, and Brussels - sprouts and also garlic.
