Cancer... wow... that sounds scary, doesn't it?

Cancer is one word that no one wants to hear. It can bring a lot of fear and confusion to many families who have a member diagnosed with cancer. Usually, it is more seen in adults, but in recent time, cancer has also been diagnosed in children, and even too. Very often if it happens to kids, it can be treated and cured.



Cancer is simply a disease of the cells, where bad cells multiply themselves and grow into tumors and even affect all other body organs. There are many types and kinds of cancer.

NOTES
Tumor: An abnormal mass of tissue in which some cells grow and multiply uncontrollably.

Diagnose: To determine the cause of a person's problems by any means of examination or lab tests.

But cancer is a huge issue everywhere in the world today. It is also very technical (which means it is not easy to understand). Even though there are great advancements in cancer management, there is still a lot of research going on with cancer to find out more about it.

In the 27 countries of the European Union, records from 2008 revealed that 1.23million people died from cancer, out of the 2.45 people diagnosed.

It was also found that in 2009, €51·0 billion (40%) of healthcare cost was for cancer.

Lung cancer had the highest economic cost (€18·8 billion, 15% of overall cancer costs), followed by breast cancer (€15·0 billion, 12%), colorectal cancer (€13·1 billion, 10%), and prostate cancer (€8·43 billion, 7%).
Source: The Lancet Oncology, Early Online Publication, 14 October 2013

In this lesson we shall look at some basic information on cancer, how it develops, some signs and symptoms that we can look out for, what we can do to reduce our risk and some general information and statistics about it. There are notes on the left column which explains some technical terms.

Enjoy the lesson.