DIANA ALVES MENDONCA: CANCER : The horrible diseases

As everyone knows my mother had breast cancer and she was not lucky and died in 2014. Cancer is a horrible illness and will ruin the life of the person with the illness and it friends and family. So I decided to do a post about Cancer.

Cancer also known as a malignant tumour or malignant neoplasm, is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Not all tumours are cancerous; benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body. Possible signs and symptoms include:

a new lump
abnormal bleeding
a prolonged cough
unexplained weight loss
a change in bowel movements

While these symptoms may indicate cancer they may also occur due to other issues. There are over 200 different known cancers that affect humans. Some of them are:

Breast cancer
Brain tumour
Bladder cancer
Testicular cancer
Kidney cancer
Leukaemia
Lung cancer
Ovary cancer

Tobacco use is the cause of about 22% of cancer deaths. Another 10% is due to obesity, a poor diet, lack of physical activity, and drinking alcohol. Other factors include certain infections, exposure to ionizing radiation, and environmental pollutants. In the developing world nearly 20% of cancers are due to infections such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human papillomavirus. These factors act, at least partly, by changing the genes of a cell.

Approximately 5–10% of cancers are due to genetic defects inherited from a person's parents. Cancer can be detected by certain signs and symptoms or screening tests. It is then typically further investigated by medical imaging and confirmed by biopsy.

Many cancers can be prevented by not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, not drinking too much alcohol, eating plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, being vaccinated against certain infectious diseases, not eating too much red meat, and avoiding too much exposure to sunlight. Early detection through screening is useful for cervical and colorectal cancer. The benefits of screening in breast cancer are controversial. Cancer is often treated with some combination of radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Pain and symptom management are an important part of care. Palliative care is particularly important in those with advanced disease. The chance of survival depends on the type of cancer and extent of disease at the start of treatment. In children under 15 at diagnosis the five year survival rate in the developed world is on average 80%.For cancer in the United States the average five year survival rate is 66%.

In 2012 about 14.1 million new cases of cancer occurred globally. It caused about 8.2 million deaths or 14.6% of all human deaths. The most common types of cancer in males are lung cancer, cancer, colorectal cancer, and stomach cancer, and in females, the most common types are breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and cervical cancer. Skin cancer is not included in these statistics and if it were it would account for at least 40% of cases. In children acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and brain tumours are most common except in Africa where non-Hodgkin lymphoma occurs more often. In 2012 about 165,000 children less than 15 years of age were diagnosed with cancer. The risk of cancer increases significantly with age and many cancers occur more commonly in developed countries. Rates are increasing as more people live to an old age and as lifestyle changes occur in the developing world. The financial costs of cancer have been estimated at $1.16 trillion US dollars per year.

These are the names of some charities that support cancer: