Cancer prevention: 7 tips to reduce your risk

                   You've probably heard conflicting reports about cancer prevention. Sometimes the specific cancer-prevention tip recommended in one study or news report is advised against in another.

In many cases, what is known about cancer prevention is still evolving. However, it's well accepted that your chances of developing cancer are affected by the lifestyle choices you make.

So if you're concerned about cancer prevention, take comfort in the fact that some simple lifestyle changes can make a big difference. Consider these seven cancer prevention tips.

1. Don't use tobacco

Using any type of tobacco puts you on a collision course with cancer. Smoking has been linked to various types of cancer — including cancer of the lung, bladder, cervix and kidney. And chewing tobacco has been linked to cancer of the oral cavity and pancreas. Even if you don't use tobacco, exposure to secondhand smoke might increase your risk of lung cancer.

Avoiding tobacco — or deciding to stop using it — is one of the most important health decisions you can make. It's also an important part of cancer prevention. If you need help quitting tobacco, ask your doctor about stop-smoking products and other strategies for quitting.

2. Eat a healthy diet

Although making healthy selections at the grocery store and at mealtime can't guarantee cancer prevention, it might help reduce your risk. Consider these guidelines:

    Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Base your diet on fruits, vegetables and other foods from plant sources — such as whole grains and beans.
    Limit fat. Eat lighter and leaner by choosing fewer high-fat foods, particularly those from animal sources. High-fat diets tend to be higher in calories and might increase the risk of overweight or obesity — which can, in turn, increase cancer risk.
    If you choose to drink alcohol, do so only in moderation. The risk of various types of cancer — including cancer of the breast, colon, lung, kidney and liver — increases with the amount of alcohol you drink and the length of time you've been drinking regularly.

3. Maintain a healthy weight and be physically active

Maintaining a healthy weight might lower the risk of various types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, prostate, lung, colon and kidney.

Physical activity counts, too. In addition to helping you control your weight, physical activity on its own might lower the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer.

Adults who participate in any amount of physical activity gain some health benefits. But for substantial health benefits, strive to get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic physical activity. You can also do a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. As a general goal, include at least 30 minutes of physical activity in your daily routine — and if you can do more, even better.

4. Protect yourself from the sun

Skin cancer is one of the most common kinds of cancer — and one of the most preventable. Try these tips:

    Avoid midday sun. Stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun's rays are strongest.
    Stay in the shade. When you're outdoors, stay in the shade as much as possible. Sunglasses and a broad-rimmed hat help, too.
    Cover exposed areas. Wear tightly woven, loosefitting clothing that covers as much of your skin as possible. Opt for bright or dark colors, which reflect more ultraviolet radiation than pastels or bleached cotton.
    Don't skimp on sunscreen. Use generous amounts of sunscreen when you're outdoors, and reapply often.
    Avoid tanning beds and sunlamps. These are just as damaging as natural sunlight.

5. Get immunized

Cancer prevention includes protection from certain viral infections. Talk to your doctor about immunization against:

    Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B can increase the risk of developing liver cancer. The hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for certain high-risk adults — such as adults who are sexually active but not in a mutually monogamous relationship, people with sexually transmitted infections, intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men, and health care or public safety workers who might be exposed to infected blood or body fluids.
    Human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical and other genital cancers as well as squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. The HPV vaccine is available to both men and women age 26 or younger who didn't have the vaccine as adolescents.

6. Avoid risky behaviors

Another effective cancer prevention tactic is to avoid risky behaviors that can lead to infections that, in turn, might increase the risk of cancer. For example:

    Practice safe sex. Limit your number of sexual partners, and use a condom when you have sex. The more sexual partners you have in your lifetime, the more likely you are to contract a sexually transmitted infection — such as HIV or HPV. People who have HIV or AIDS have a higher risk of cancer of the anus, liver and lung. HPV is most often associated with cervical cancer, but it might also increase the risk of cancer of the anus, penis, throat, vulva and vagina.
    Don't share needles. Sharing needles with an infected drug user can lead to HIV, as well as hepatitis B and hepatitis C — which can increase the risk of liver cancer. If you're concerned about drug abuse or addiction, seek professional help.

7. Get regular medical care

Regular self-exams and screenings for various types of cancers — such as cancer of the skin, colon, prostate, cervix and breast — can increase your chances of discovering cancer early, when treatment is most likely to be successful. Ask your doctor about the best cancer screening schedule for you.

Take cancer prevention into your own hands, starting today. The rewards will last a lifetime. 

source from :www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/cancer-prevention/art-20044816 

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10 Essential Facts About Breast Cancer

Finding breast cancer in its early stages has many benefits.    

Javier Larrea/Getty Images

 

Chances are you have a friend or family member who’s faced breast cancer. After all, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with the disease at some point during their lives, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Sometimes a disease doesn’t seem so scary when you know the basic facts, so we talked with a few breast specialists who have in-depth knowledge about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer. Read on to find out what you should know.

1. Experts differ on when to start getting regular mammograms.

While the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that women ages 50 to 74 get mammograms every two years, the ACS suggests that women begin getting annual mammograms at age 45. And some experts believe 40 is the right age to start getting mammograms.

“Breast cancer is an age-related disease, so if you look at women under 50, they get far fewer cancers than women over 50; but if you look at women in their forties compared to women in their fifties, there’s not that much of a difference,” says Monica Morrow, MD, chief of breast service in the surgery department at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

“We think the best thing for women’s overall health is to start at 40, because the best way to pick up small cancers is to have annual mammograms so you can see subtle changes in breasts over time,” Dr. Morrow says.

Finding cancer when the tumor is small has many benefits. “If it’s smaller, you can have less surgery — say, a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy; it’s less likely to have spread to the lymph nodes; and you're therefore less likely to have those taken out with surgery," she says. "You're also possibly less likely to have chemotherapy.”

Talk to your doctor about when you should start getting mammograms and how often you should get them.

2. Breast self-exams may not save your life.

There’s no evidence that giving yourself a monthly breast self-exam (BSE) reduces the risk of dying from breast cancer, or that BSEs help in finding cancer earlier, according to the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Yet many physicians still recommend doing them.

“They allow you to get comfortable with what your tissue feels like, so that if there’s something new, you’ll notice it,” says Allyson F. Jacobson, MD, medical director of the breast program at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

“You have more access to your breasts than anyone else. If you find something like a lump in your breast, sure, it can make you anxious," says Dr. Jacobson. "But if you're examining your breasts at regular intervals, you can potentially find something before the next time you see a doctor." She recommends doing a BSE the week after your period (if you still have menstrual periods), and no more than once a month.

Morrow adds that breasts are lumpy by nature, and for women who have especially lumpy breasts, self-exams may not be effective. “Every time they do an exam, they find a lump, and those women should not drive themselves crazy trying to do self-exams — especially if they’re in the age range to receive mammograms,” she notes.

3. Your breast size doesn’t matter.

Jacobson says the size of your breasts has no bearing on your risk for developing breast cancer. The same is true for detecting cancer with a mammogram.

“As long as the technologist can get the tissue within the plates to compress it and get the image done — which they can almost always do — there shouldn’t be a problem, " she says. "Even men can have mammograms, and there is very little breast tissue in the typical male.”

Whether or not you or a physician can feel a cancer depends on how close to the surface the cancer is, how different the texture of the cancer is from your breast tissue, and where the cancer is in the breast, says Morrow. “It’s not purely a matter of breast size.”

4. Breast cancer usually shows no signs or symptoms.

The point of mammograms is to detect cancer before symptoms occur, but sometimes cancer is missed on a mammogram.

The most common symptom of breast cancer is a painless lump or mass. But according to the ACS, other symptoms can include swelling; skin irritation; pain in the nipple or breast; an inward turning nipple; redness, scaliness, or thickening of the nipple or breast skin; and nipple discharge that isn’t breast milk.

“Awareness of your breasts is important. If you find something that’s new or different, whether you discover it in the shower or looking in the mirror or another way, bring it to your doctor’s attention,” says Morrow.

5. Most women who get breast cancer don’t have a family history.

More than 85 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease, reports the ACS.

“While family history does increase your risk, not having breast cancer in your family does not by any means get you off the hook,” says Jacobson. Even if you have no family history, your risk of getting breast cancer over your lifetime is 12 percent.

“This is very high for a cancer. I see many women who find a lump and don’t think they need to worry, because no one in their family has had breast cancer,” says Jacobson.

RELATED: What Is the Best Diet for Cancer Prevention?

6. High risk factors are relative.

When the term "high risk" is used scientifically, Morrow says it means higher risk than someone without any risk factors. “Factors increase the risk of getting breast cancer, but there is no standard definition of what truly constitutes high risk.”

Still, in general Morrow says the biggest risk factors for getting breast cancer are being female and getting older. Some other risk factors, according to the National Cancer Institute, include:

    Being obese
    Having a close relative with breast cancer (specifically your mother, sisters, or daughters)
    Carrying the gene mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2
    Getting your first menstrual period before age 12
    Giving birth for the first time after age 30
    Never being pregnant
    Starting menopause at an older age
    Taking hormone therapy
    Drinking alcohol

Not all of these risk factors are equal; they range from questionable to truly high-risk.

7. Genetic testing is appropriate for some women, but not all. 

If you know that a close relative, such as your mother or sister, carries a breast cancer gene mutation (such as BRCA1 or BRCA2), talk with your doctor about genetic testing. If you don’t know whether a family member who had breast cancer was tested for a gene mutation, your doctor can determine if you’d be a good candidate for genetic testing.

“[The number of] women who have this increase in risk is relatively small,” says Morrow. Some other factors that may be markers of a higher risk, and that may merit getting a genetic evaluation, include:

    Having numerous relatives who have had breast cancer
    Having relatives who have had breast cancer at a younger age, before menopause
    Having relatives who have had cancer in both breasts
    Having male relatives who have had breast cancer
    Having relatives with both breast and ovarian cancer

Check with your insurance company about coverage for genetic testing, but note that the Affordable Care Act considers genetic counseling and testing for people at high risk a covered preventive service.

8. Breast cancer treatment is truly individual. 

Even though it’s beneficial to find your breast cancer in an earlier stage before it has spread, doing so doesn’t always mean that your treatment will be less aggressive.

“Sometimes we end up doing mastectomies instead of lumpectomies for stage 0 breast cancer, because the biology of cancer the patient has is more likely to be aggressive and shorten their survival,” says Morrow, adding that the same thing goes for chemotherapy.

“Just because a tumor is small versus large doesn’t mean it’s not serious. The biology of the tumor, no matter its size, is what matters,” she says.

By testing tumors, Morrow says it’s possible to determine how the cancer will behave. “Based on those characteristics, even if it’s a small stage I cancer, the potential of what it can do is what drives the treatment,” she says.

9. Mastectomy is not always the best treatment.

While a mastectomy, which is the removal of one or both breasts, is performed to get rid of cancer from the breasts or to prevent cancer from developing in women who are at high risk, Morrow says there is a myth surrounding the surgery.

“It’s often thought that if you have breast cancer in one breast, the safest thing to do is to have both of your breasts removed. For the average woman with breast cancer — meaning those who don’t have a genetic mutation — removing your other breast does nothing to prolong your life,” she says.

Morrow adds that breast cancer does not spread from breast to breast. “The risk of getting a second breast cancer in your other breast has been going down over time, because the drugs used to treat the first breast cancer reduce the risk of making a new cancer. But a lot of people say, ‘I want to see my children grow up. I want to be safe. I hear celebrities say it’s good to remove both.’ It’s just simply not true,” she says.

10. There are some things you can do to reduce your risk.

There is no proven way to prevent breast cancer, yet Jacobson says living a healthy lifestyle is your best defense.

“You can’t beat your DNA or your family history, so whatever you’re predisposed to, you are predisposed to. But there are things you can potentially control and maximize to your benefit,” she says.

Following a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidants and cancer-fighting nutrients, as well as exercising, minimizing alcohol (more than one drink a day on average increases a woman’s risk), and maintaining a healthy weight can all be beneficial, she notes.

“There’s no magic bullet, or pill, or one specific thing, but these are some factors you can control,” she says.





Source from : http://www.everydayhealth.com/news/10-essential-facts-about-breast-cancer/

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What Is Pancreatic Cancer?

Though relatively rare, pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

Cancer is a disease characterized by the abnormal, out-of-control growth of cells.

Pancreatic cancer occurs when this happens in the pancreas, a glad of the digestive and endocrine systems.

The pancreas helps the body digest food by secreting pancreatic juices containing digestive enzymes.

It also regulates blood glucose levels by secreting various hormones, notably insulin.

Pancreatic cancer is often life-threatening, and ranks as the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Pancreatic Cancer Prevalence

     Compared with other cancers, pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, representing about 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States each year, according to the NCI.

The agency estimates that the country will see 48,960 new cases of pancreatic cancer in 2015, along with 40,560 deaths related to pancreatic cancer — representing almost 7 percent of the year's cancer deaths.

Pancreatic cancer predominately affects the elderly, and it is rare in people younger than 40 years old. The median age of pancreatic cancer diagnosis is 71.

The cancer is also about 30 percent more common in men than in women, and slightly more common in African Americans than in people of other races, according to the NCI.

Causes and Risk Factors

    Like all cancers, pancreatic cancer is caused by changes to the DNA of certain cells, which cause the cells to grow abnormally.

Various factors can make you more prone to getting pancreatic cancer.

Aside from age, race, and gender, risk factors include having any of the following medical conditions:

    Diabetes
    Chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)
    Cirrhosis, a form of scarring of the liver
    A family history of pancreatic cancer
    Inherited genetic mutations or disorders

However, other risk factors are related to lifestyle choices and can be changed.

For instance, smokers are about twice as likely to develop pancreatic cancer as people who have never smoked, according to the American Cancer Society.

People who are overweight or obese, or who have experienced heavy exposure to pesticides, dyes, or chemicals at work, are also at increased risk for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer Stages

  
      Pancreatic cancer is often categorized as being in one of five stages, which describe how far the cancer has spread and can help guide treatment:

    Stage 0: Also called carcinoma in situ, this stage occurs when there are abnormal cells in the lining of the pancreas that have not spread into deeper tissues of the organ.
    Stage 1: Cancer has formed, but it is still confined to the pancreas. The cancer is considered stage 1A if the tumor is 2 centimeters (cm) or smaller in diameter, and stage 1B if the tumor is larger than 2 cm.
    Stage 2: The tumor has spread beyond the
    Stage 3: The tumor has spread to nearby major blood vessels or nerves, but has not yet spread to distant body areas.
    Stage 4: The tumor has spread to distant tissues and organs, such as the lungs or liver.

Sources; http://www.everydayhealth.com/pancreatic-cancer/
pancreas. In stage 2A, the cancer has spread to nearby tissues and organs, but not to nearby lymph nodes. In stage 2B, the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.

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What are the different types of cancer treatment?

            If someone you know is being treated for cancer, you may want to learn more about what they’re going through. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are the most common types of cancer treatment.

Surgery is often the first treatment option if the tumor can be taken out of the body. Sometimes only part of the tumor can be removed. Radiation, chemotherapy, or both might be used to shrink the tumor before or after surgery. For more on this, please see our document called A Guide to Cancer Surgery.

Doctors use chemotherapy (or “chemo”) to kill cancer cells. The term chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Usually, the drugs are given into a vein (or IV) or they’re taken by mouth. Chemo drugs then travel through the body in the bloodstream, reaching cancer cells that may have spread (metastasized) from the tumor to other places in the body.

Radiation therapy uses high energy rays (like x-rays) to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. The radiation may come from outside the body (external radiation) or from radioactive materials put right into the tumor (internal or implant radiation). Getting external radiation is much like getting an x-ray. The radiation itself is painless, but tissue damage may cause side effects. .

Other kinds of treatment you might hear about include hormone therapy, stem cell or bone marrow transplant, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. Hormone therapy is sometimes used to treat certain kinds of prostate and breast cancers. Immunotherapy is treatment designed to boost the cancer patient’s own immune system to help fight the cancer. Targeted therapy is treatment that targets the cancer cells and causes less damage to healthy cells. Please call us or visit our website if you would like to learn more about these types of cancer treatment.

You might know someone else being treated for the same type of cancer, but don’t assume that any two people will respond to treatment the same way. Each cancer is different, and each person’s response to treatment is unique. It’s best not to compare one person to another.

What are the side effects of cancer treatment?

        The type of treatment a person gets depends on the cancer type and stage (how far the cancer has spread), the age of the patient, and other medical problems and treatments the person has had. Each drug or treatment plan has different side effects. It’s hard to predict what side effects will occur, even when patients get the same treatment. Some effects can be bad and others fairly mild. Some people have a tough time with cancer treatment, but there are also many who manage quite well and are even able to work throughout treatment.

Chemotherapy side effects

         Short-term (and often treatable) side effects of chemo can include nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, hair loss, and mouth sores. Because chemo can damage the blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, patients may have low blood cell counts. Low blood counts can cause certain side effects, such as:

    -Higher risk of infection (from a shortage of white blood cells)
    -Serious bleeding or bruising after cuts or injuries (from a shortage of blood platelets)
    -Extreme tiredness or fatigue (sometimes from low red blood cell counts)

Cancer care teams carefully watch for and manage chemo side effects.

Because everyone’s body is different, people notice different effects from chemo. Most chemo side effects go away after treatment ends. For instance, hair lost during treatment nearly always grows back after treatment. In the meantime, most patients are able to use wigs, scarves, or hats to cover, warm, or protect their heads.

Radiation therapy side effects

        Radiation treatments are much like x-rays and are not painful. The most common side effects are skin irritation and severe tiredness (fatigue). Fatigue is especially common when treatments go on for several weeks. It’s a feeling of extreme tiredness and low energy, which often does not get better with rest. People also report fatigue caused by the daily trips to the hospital to get their radiation treatments.

Many people are able to keep up their normal activities throughout the course radiation treatments, though it’s common for them to adjust their schedules or need more rest until they feel better.

Is cancer treatment worse than cancer?

         This is a common myth that can shorten lives. People who believe that cancer treatment is worse than cancer itself might not follow through with treatments that can prolong life or even cure their cancer.

It’s easy to understand the source of this myth. Often people diagnosed with cancer have never had any symptoms or pain. For others, the symptoms have just started and are not too bad yet. But once the treatment starts, they often begin to feel pretty sick. It’s true that chemo, radiation, and surgery can cause distressing and sometimes serious side effects. But most of them can be treated and will go away after treatment ends, and cancer treatment can be life-saving. If cancer is not treated at all, symptoms tend to become worse and worse.

There are times when every cancer patient questions their commitment to the difficult journey of treatment and its side effects. Sometimes they can get discouraged by the uncertainty of treatment and wonder if it’s worth it. This is normal. It may help to remember that every year cancer treatments get more and more effective, and doctors keep learning better ways to control treatment side effects.
Source from :http://www.cancer.org/treatment/understandingyourdiagnosis/talkingaboutcancer/whensomeoneyouknowhascancer/when-somebody-you-know-has-cancer-cancer-treatment-questions

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