Cancer. It’s perhaps the most frightening word in the English language. Although our medical system has made tremendous advances in the last few decades the grand prize of them all, the holy grail of medical science – a cancer cure – continues to elude researchers.
A cancer diagnosis is serious business. This disease claims over a half million lives each year in the United States alone. Cancer, in its many forms, has the ability to threaten each and every one of us no matter what our age.
Most Common Cancers:
The four most common types of cancer are prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer. Although cancer death rates have been slowly declining for years, the death rate for prostate cancer remains 28.0 per 100,000. The death rate for breast cancer is 25.4 per 100,000. Colorectal cancer has the lowest death rate of the top four cancers, coming in at 19.6 per 100,000. The highest death rate is attributed to lung cancer at 54.8 per 100,000 (Source: Randolph E. Schmid; Associated Press). more…
When Dana Reeve, widow of actor Christopher Reeve, died of lung cancer, the stories of her death pointed out that she didn’t smoke. She was young, only 44; she had nursed her paralyzed husband for eight years; she left a
13-year-old son an orphan. And how could she have gotten lung cancer? She had never smoked.Lung cancer is often preventable, and it is usually fatal.
Unfortunately I will also become a victim of this disease. Not for myself, but a victim because I am a friend of a lung cancer person. One of my very dearest friends will undergo a lung operation this coming Tuesday. more…
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that affects the abdominal cavity, chest cavity, and the area around the heart. It has an uncommon nature that makes it difficult to diagnose and treat. It has been connected with exposure to asbestos, which is a material that was found in many work environments. There is a small amount of people that are diagnosed with this terrible disease.
Normal mesothelioma therapies include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. You should keep in mind that if you choose one course of action for mesothelioma treatment, you might preclude other courses. All of your options should be considered as soon as possible.
When individuals have a prolonged history of working with asbestos, they are at higher risk of Mesothelioma cancer. It will take the people that have been exposed to this type of asbestos to not have any kind of symptoms for up to forty years. This means that the average age of the people that are finding out that they have this problem are between the ages of fifty and seventy. There are more men that are being diagnosed than women. This is due to the fact that there were more industrial settings found to have the asbestos. more…
