Tobacco- A Lethal Carcinogen

In India, doctors are reporting a rise in pre-cancerous lesions in the mouth – which they’re convinced are caused by chewing tobacco. Mouth cancer has a ten-year incubation period, so they fear a huge bout of oral cancer will hit India in a few years time. Mouth cancer is largely a lifestyle disease, meaning that the majority of the cases are related to tobacco and alcohol use. Approximately 90% of people with mouth cancer are tobacco users. Although smokeless tobacco products are less lethal, they are not a safe alternative to smoking. In addition to being a strong factor in the development of lung cancer, cigarette smoking also increases the risk of a number of other cancers, including mouth and throat cancers, bladder, pancreatic, cervical and kidney cancer.

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Possible signs and symptoms

One of the real dangers of this cancer is that in its early stages, it can be painless, and little in the way of physical changes may be obvious. Oral cancer may present itself with many symptoms; some of the common ones are listed below.

• Red (Erythroplakia) and white (Leukoplakia) patches on your lips or in your mouth

• Non-healing sore on your lip or in your mouth

• Swellings or lumps on the lips, gums, cheek, back of the throat etc.

• Bleeding in the mouth

• Numbness, loss of pain in any area of the mouth, neck or face

• Difficulty in moving the jaw or tongue

• Difficulty in chewing, swallowing or speaking

• Loosening of teeth

• A change in the fit of denture

• Ear pain

• Swollen lymph nodes in the neck

• Unexplained weight loss

People, who stop using tobacco, even after many years of use, can greatly reduce their risk of all smoking related illnesses, including mouth cancer. The best way to avoid these cancers is to never start smoking or chewing tobacco in any form.

Hurdles in diagnosis

Prevention is certainly much better than cure in this disease since, historically the death rate associated with oral cancer is particularly high not because it is hard to discover or diagnose, but due to the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development. Often oral cancer is only discovered when the cancer has metastasized to another location, most likely the lymph nodes of the neck. Prognosis at this stage of discovery is significantly worse than when it is caught in a localized intra oral area. Besides the metastasis, at these later stages, the primary tumour has had time to invade deep into local structures. Oral cancer is particularly dangerous because in its early stages it may not be noticed by the patient, as it can frequently prosper without producing pain or symptoms they might readily recognize, and because it has a high risk of producing second, primary tumours. This means that patients, who survive a first encounter with the disease, have up to a 20 times higher risk of developing a second cancer. This heightened risk factor can last for 5 to 10 years after the first occurrence.

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is a type of cancer that originates in the breast(s).Breast cancer forms in tissues of the breast, usually the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple) and lobules (glands that produce milk). Worldwide, breast cancer accounts for 22.9% of all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers) in women. It is widely known that breast cancer generally affects women but a lesser known fact is that it can occur in both men and women.

There are two main types of breast cancer:
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Ductal carcinoma is the most common form of breast cancer. In this case, tumours form in the cells of the ducts. Ductal carcinoma can be invasive with the potential to spread. This form of breast cancer accounts for about one in five new cases.

Lobular carcinoma occurs in the lobules. Lobular breast cancer can be non-invasive or invasive with potential to spread. About one in 10 breast cancer cases are invasive lobular cancer.

Three less common types of breast cancer are inflammatory breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and recurrent breast cancer.

Some symptoms to watch out for

Breast cancer may cause any of the following signs and symptoms. Check with your doctor if you have any of the following problems:

A lump or thickening in or near the breast or in the underarm area.
A change in the size or shape of the breast.
A dimple or puckering in the skin of the breast.
A nipple turned inward into the breast.
Fluid, other than breast milk, from the nipple, especially if it’s bloody.
Scaly, red, or swollen skin on the breast, nipple, or areola (the dark area of skin that is around the nipple).
Dimples in the breast, which look like the skin of an orange.

Other conditions that are not breast cancer may cause these same symptoms.

There are steps every person can take to help the body stay as healthy as possible, such as,

Maintaining a healthy weight- Overweight and obese women have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared to women who maintain a healthy weight, especially after menopause.
Maintaining a balanced diet
not smoking
limiting alcohol
exercising regularly
in case of women, breastfeeding can lower breast cancer risk, especially if a woman breastfeeds for longer than 1 year

While these may have some impact on your risk of getting breast cancer, they cannot eliminate the risk.

Plausible reasons for the occurrence of breast cancer

Breast cancer is always caused by a genetic abnormality. However, only 5-10% of cancers are due to an inherited abnormality & 85-90% of breast cancers are due to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and the “wear and tear” of life in general.
Women who don’t have a full-term pregnancy or have their first child after age 30 have a higher risk of breast cancer compared to women who gave birth before age 30.
Radiation to the chest to or to the face increases the risk of developing breast cancer later in life.

Cancer is not only a mental disease

Cancer diagnosis is not only physical but mentally challenging as well. Here are some tips that state how a patient can resolve himself/herself mentally.

1. Talking to a surgeon, oncologist, radiologist and psychologist can really help.
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2. At this time, support of friends and family is very important. Embrace the ones who are with you at this time and try talking out whatever you are going through.

3. You have to make yourself realise that life won’t be the same as before but that doesn’t mean that you won’t have a better life. Just make yourself happy with the better life that you are going to have and avoid being demoralised.

4. Keep yourself busy and positive at the same time. Read books, take out your fear, keep hopes and do as much research you could do about your disease.

5. Do something special for yourself. Treat yourself to something that will make you feel pampered: a massage, a change in hair colour, buy a new outfit, or take a trip.

6. Don’t beat yourself up. Talk to yourself and try to build the confidence in you. Make yourself strong and tell that you are ready to fight the challenges that are going to come in your way.

7. Find Happiness and remember that you are the source of your happiness; not somebody else. A positive attitude will help tremendously in getting through your treatments.

8. Learn to forgive. Harbouring negative feelings will only slow down the progress of moving forward. Gather the tools and skills to find forgiveness through your church/synagogue, counselling, books and tapes, family and friends.

9. Don’t forget to laugh as laughter is still the best medicine so always take it and keep yourself happy. Read jokes or watch some comedy shows. Share a laughing time with your family. This will you laugh out what you are going through and you will be able to tackle your disease more easily.

10. Divert yourself from negative thinking and wrong people. During this time of your life, it is important for you to stay with the right kind of people.

11. Your health won’t allow you to go out all the time but do take time to go out and breathe. Go for a morning walk or a stroll with your closed ones. Try not being alone and always find a company to be along with.

Cancer is a very challenging disease ant it is important to deal with it physically as well as mentally. Remember that you need to be strong from inside and outside as well. This is a testing time and according to a study it has been found that mentally healthy cancer patients have been successful in surviving cancer.

Cancer during pregnancy

Some women face the scariest and complicated times when it is supposed to be happy. Pregnant women who suffer cancer are the people who have go through such suffering. Occurrence of cancer is uncommon in the women who delay their maternal ages. For example, seven to fifteen percent of breast cancer cases occur in pregnant women making it the most common cancer diagnosed during pregnancy.

Cancer during pregnancy happens but is mostly rare. Pregnant mothers are more likely to get cancers like breast cancer, cervical cancer lymphoma and melanoma. Cancer itself rarely harms the baby, and some cancer treatments are safe during pregnancy. Cooperation of both doctor and the patient works best as a treatment for such cases. The options will depend on what level the cancer has reached and till what amount has it spread in the other parts of the body.
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Another type of cancer that pregnant women can get is gestational tropho blastic tumour. When the fertilized egg doesn’t turn into a foetus, such cancer is likely to happen. This tumour is generally difficult to detect. In its early stages, it may look like a normal pregnancy. It is advised to consult a doctor if a patient notices vaginal bleeding or there are no traces of baby movement at usual times. Treatment depends on the type of tumour, whether it has spread to other places, and your general state of health.

Pregnancy cancer is rare and oncologists have faced only 2-3 such cases in their entire life. The only way to gain the necessary knowledge about cancer found and treated during pregnancy is to gather information from the hospitals or health professional that have read much about it or are currently reading as the research still going on.

Most of the people have indulged themselves in finding out the information and treatment of pregnancy cancer. A lot of research is being done on symptoms of cancer during pregnancy and its prevention. It has been found out that some women have even received chemotherapy during pregnancy and delivered healthy infants.

It has been found that pregnant mothers do survive from cancer and have managed to live through and beyond the reproductive years. In addition, newer treatments have been gentler on the preservation of fertility. Patients are concerned about the effects of prior treatment on their offspring and are also concerned about the effects of a pregnancy on their risk of cancer recurrence.

Pregnancy is a very delicate phase and when such is encountered by cancer disease, it becomes critical. This is because in such case of cancer there are two lives that have to be survived from such a disease .Additionally, an infant under the mother’s womb is very sensitive and has to be protected from the infected cells that are spreading in the mother’s body.

It is important for the mother’s to get a cancer test when they come to know that they are pregnant. This will reduce the problems and a mother can take a decision of wether she should conceive or not.

Defining Cancer

What is cancer disease?

Diseases in which cells divide abnormally without control and where other tissues invade is known as cancer. These cells spread through blood to other parts of the body. Cancer are not just one disease but many diseases because there are more than 100 different types of cancer. Cancer diseases are mostly named on the organ or type of cell where they occur. For example, cancer that begins in the colon is called colon cancer; cancer that begins in melanocytes of the skin is called melanoma.

Types of cancer-

Some of the cancer diseases are broadly discussed below:

1. Carcinoma – Cancer that occurs in the tissues that cover or near to internal organs is known as carcinoma. There are many subtypes of carcinoma, like den carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma.

2. Sarcoma – cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.

3. Leukaemia – cancer that starts in blood forming tissue such as the bone marrow. This causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to enter the blood.

4. Lymphoma and myeloma – cancers that occur in the cells of the immune system.

5. Central nervous system cancers – cancers that occur in the tissues of the brain and spinal cord.

Origins of Cancer

All cancers first occur or begin from the cells. To understand cancer, it is important to know the changes that occur in the cells when they become cancer cells. The body is made up of many types of cells and these cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells.

Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong and that is when a disease occurs in the body. In such, the genetic material or DNA gets damaged or changed leading to productions of mutations that affect the normal cell growth. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells form a mass of tissue called a tumour. Some cancers do not form tumours. For example, leukaemia is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood.

There are two main types of tumour-

1. Benign tumour-This type of tumour is not cancerous. It can often be removed, and in most cases it doesn’t return. Cells in benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body. Thus they can be cured completely and not dangerous if notified and operated at the right time.

2. Malignant tumour-This type of tumour is cancerous. As cells in these tumours can invade into nearby tissues and can spread to other parts of the body. The spread of tumour from one part of the body to another part of the body causes cancer and in most cases cannot be cured. It can be cured but with no surety of returning back of the tumour.