CANCER

She takes a deep breath as she moves into the TESTS chamber, her mind says a little prayer as she lays on the CT scan tray.
"The test results will be ready in 2 days" the doctor says, and when the test results finally came, her fears were confirmed, she has cancer, cancer of the breast.

Hers is just one out of millions of cancer cases in the world, as at 2012, 14.1 million of new cases of cancer were discovered, this statistic shows how dangerous and deadly it is.

Cancer is a group of diseases that results from an abnormal cell growth with the potential to spread or invade to other parts of the body.

Keeping this definition in mind, cancer could affect any part of the body, I mean, any part of the body with a growing, living cell. This then explains the reason for most cancer cases today, like the cancer of the lungs, skin, breast, blood, bone to mention a few.

Though not all tumors are cancers, but one thing to note about cancerous cells is that they have the ability to spread to other parts of the body.

Cancer is caused mostly by environmental factors and hereditary factors.

Environmental factors involves behavioral and lifestyle factors. It is said that, tobacco is responsible for over 25% of cases of cancer, which means, a heavy smoker is at risk of having cancer, other factors are heavy alcohol consumption, obesity, harmful diet, lack of physical exercise, infection (which could be transmitted sexually) and exposure to radiation.

Hereditary factors arises as a result of an inherited genetic defect, cancer cases that arises from this type of factor are not many.

Cancer is known to be a silent killer, as it's not easily detected as its symptoms are known with other less dangerous health conditions, not until those symptoms become prolonged and tests are carried out, cancer remains undetected. Most symptoms associated with it are ; tiredness, cough or pneumonia, nose bleeding, loss of hair and loss of weight. These symptoms also differ based on the type of cancer involved.
The fact that the early symptoms of cancer could be confused with other diseases makes a regular cancer screening needed, it's proven that early detection of cancer makes it easier to cure.

Treatment of cancer is based on the type of cancer being treated. The treatments may include; surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy and palliative care.
However, not all cases of cancer are cured using these treatments, cancer is mostly managed, medications such as; NSAIDs(not readily recommended due to side effects), Tamoxifene or Ramoxifene (for breast cancer) are used to manage cancer.

Prevention they say is better than cure, staying clear of tobacco is sure a way to prevent cancer. Also living a healthy lifestyle most especially while youthful. Avoid excessive alcohol consumption, exercise regularly and eat healthy foods.