For many of us, one of the biggest health fears we live with is the fear of cancer. Cancer is a class of disease that results from the uncontrolled growth of a group of cells in the body, resulting in most cases in the growth of a tumour.
Cancer can affect people at all ages, but the risk of cancer increases with age. Most cancers can be treated, and some can be cured, depending on the type, location and how advanced the cancer has become.
Oncology or the study of cancer has resulted in significant advances in the understanding of these conditions. This has helped in the early identification and diagnosis of the condition and progress in the development of treatments which include surgery, chemotherapy (treatment with medication) and radiotherapy (use of radiation to target abnormal cells). In addition there is a greater understanding of the causes of some types of cancer (e.g. the link between cigarette smoke and cancers is clearly established and has resulted in interventions to reduce the attractiveness of smoking to help reduce the incidence of this disease).
With the ever-increasing understanding and improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, many cancers are no longer inevitably a ‘death sentence’.
