MYTHS ABOUT CANCER?
Cancer is always a death sentence wrong
Every year, more and more people with cancer are cured. Cancers that in the past were fatal are now often completely curable. Many people are alive today after being treated for cancers which twenty years ago would have been incurable. There are two areas in which you can take action:

• By reducing the risks of getting cancer
• By finding cancers at an early stage and getting treatment

Being diagnosed as having cancer does not necessarily mean death. Fear is a natural reaction, but with appropriate treatment more people are surviving cancer and leading happy, productive and satisfying lives after the diagnosis of cancer and following treatment.

Cancer can be caused by knocks and bumps wrong
Sometimes a knock can make you aware of a lump beneath your skin which was already there, e.g. a lump in your breast. This doesn't mean that the knock caused the lump.

Cancer is catching wrong
Cancer is not at all catching in everyday situations. You can't get it by shaking hands with cancer patients or by hugging them. So don't shun people with cancer. It is not like catching a cold.

Stress can trigger cancer no firm scientific evidence
This is a popular theory, but there is no good evidence to show that stress, anxiety or any other mental or emotional state can cause cancer.

Cancer runs in the family generally no
There are only a few forms of cancer that can be hereditary and they are uncommon. However, there are some families in which one type of cancer does seem to crop up more frequently than usual, such as breast, ovarian and bowel cancer, and malignant melanoma. In many cases this could be chance. In others it could either have something to do with family lifestyle, such as eating habits, or it could be something in the genetic make-up of the family. It does not necessarily mean that the cancer itself is inherited.

What may possibly be inherited is a higher risk of developing a particular cancer. If this is the case in your family and you are worried, the best thing is to discuss this with the family doctor and be watchful of any change in your normal health that lasts for two weeks without improvement.

Men are less at risk than woman wrong
In 1990 about 85,000 men died from cancer compared with 78,000 women in the UK. The main cancer causing deaths in men are cancer of the lung, the large intestine, prostate and stomach. In women the main cancer causing deaths are cancer of the breast, the lung, the large intestine and the stomach.

If you ignore the symptoms the cancer might go away wrong
The earlier the cancer is detected the greater chances of successful treatment. Every cancer has its own signs and symptoms; if you ignore the symptoms the cancer will spread and become more dangerous and less easy to treat.

These are the most important symptoms to look out for:

• a lump anywhere in your body, e.g. breast or testicle;
• a change in a skin mole;
• a sore that does not heal;
• a persistent cough or hoarseness;
• persistent indigestion or difficulty in swallowing;
• vomiting or coughing up of blood;
• change in normal bowel habit, e.g. persistent diarrhoea or constipation;
• any bleeding in the urine or bowel movement and any abnormal vaginal bleeding;
• unexplained weight loss;
• unexplained loss of appetite.

Many things can cause cancer. But most of us will he exposed to them only occasionally, and even then in very small quantities. This does not mean that they are completely safe, but it does mean that your risk will be small, perhaps no greater than many other risks that you live with every day.