Cancer Statistics for 2005

With the summer months on the horizon, and the relentless sun beating down on our skin, I was curious about cancer statistics for this great new year. The following website offers a load of valuable information dealing with skin cancer and statistics for 2005: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/STT/stt_0.asp. The American Cancer Society keeps track of cancer ouccurence, the number of deaths and cases that are current and relevant, and how long people can and actually do survive after diagnosis of cancer. Datat pertaining to skin cancer regarding negative behaviors that increase a persons risk of obtaining skin cancer are also tracked. First of all, what is cancer? Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spred of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, death can occur. Cancer is caused by external factors including tobacco, chemicals, radiation, and infectious organisms, and internal factors including inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from metabolism. These causal factors may act together or in sequence to initiate or promote carcinogenesis. Ten or more years often pass between exposure to external factors and detectable cancer. Cancer is treated by surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormones, and immunotherapy. Who is at risk for cancer? About 76% of all cancers are diagnosed in persons 55 are older. Cancer researchers use the word risk in different ways, most commonly expressing risk as lifetime risk or relative risk: Lifetime risk refers to the probability that an individual, over the course of a lifetime, will develo or die from cancer. In the US, men have slightly less than a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer; for woment the risk is a little more than 1 in 3. Relative risk is a measure of the strengh of the relationship between risk factors and the particular cancer. It compares the risk of developing cancer in persons with a certain exposure or trait to the risk in person who do not have this exposure or trait. For example, male smokers are about 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers, so their relative risk is 20. Most relative risks are not this large. For example, women who have a first-degree (mother, sister, or daughter) family history of breast cancer have about twice the risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who don't have a family history. Also, about 5% to 10% of all cancers are clearly hereditary, in that an inherited genetic alteration predisposes the person to a very high risk of particular cancers.