Cancer encompasses a large number of diseases that have in common the disorganized and accelerated division and replication of cells, this leads to the formation of tumors that have the ability to invade and travel to different organs, being the second cause of death in the world, after cardiovascular disease.
Luis Cancel, who is a graduate of Medicine and head of the Thoracic Oncology department at the ONCARE Oncology Group, talks about one of the most frequent diseases in the world, cancer, and calls for prevention and timely detection, when held yesterday World Cancer Day.
“World Cancer Day is a very important day for me, since it helps us spread the importance of these diseases, beyond the number of cases, it helps us to make the population aware that cancer is a disease that can be prevented and that it can be cured. Cancer occurs at any age, however, its prevalence increases as the age of the people increases, for example, although there are young patients with breast or prostate cancer, most will present at 60 and 70 years of age “, mentioned the oncologist.
In addition, he highlighted that cancer is born sporadically, this means that there are no risk factors, genetic or hereditary predisposition, the symptoms will depend on the type of cancer; In women, breast cancer tends to present with the finding of a lump in the breast, while a patient with prostate cancer will have obstructive urinary data or an elevation of a marker in the blood called prostate antigen.
He mentioned that fortunately the number of cancer survivors is increasing, in 2018 it was estimated that there were more than 48 million, this because of the timely detection programs that save lives and the constant innovation of medical and surgical treatments.
“The types of cancer that stand out due to their high incidence and their probability of prevention and timely detection are breast, cervix, lung, prostate and colorectal cancer. Breast cancer being the one with the highest mortality due to its high incidence, however, it is a cancer that can be prevented or detected in a timely manner, the smaller it is, the easier it is to cure.
Nutrition and exercise are essential pillars of prevention, timely detection begins at home, we must have the responsibility to go for a review to know what studies we need according to our risk factors; in women we recommend annual mammography from the age of 40, only this strategy reduces the probability of dying from breast cancer by more than 30 percent ”.
Other actions that he recommended to the population to reduce this disease were to focus on health, give importance to diet and exercise as a prevention method, avoid harmful factors, such as alcohol and tobacco consumption; support people with cancer, enter the support network of cancer patients, that will make a big change for them, it can be from basic things such as helping them buy the supermarket or accompanying them to their consultations, educating ourselves on the topic of cancer, starting a detection program, for this it is important to leave fears behind and focus on the fact that cancer that is detected early, is cured and with fewer treatments.
“In terms of treatments, we have had great advances in oncology in recent years, the implementation of immunotherapy, as well as therapies directed at specific mutations, have radically changed the cure and survival rates.
“And far from affecting the pandemic in late diagnoses by giving priority to other diseases, it has worked to make people more aware of the importance of health, and we let them know that we are with them in their fight despite everything, that the pandemic or anything that gets in our way will slow us down ”, he concluded.
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