Cancer is often discussed as if it were a disease that affects only adults. But in truth, it affects every person who has or ever will be born.
Prevention and health are often associated with a healthy lifestyle, and generally everyone agrees that eating a well-balanced diet and getting enough exercise help to keep us healthy. Cancer, however, isn’t something we can avoid completely. When you have cancer, you can try to prevent it through lifestyle changes or natural medicine, but sometimes cancer cells are able to metastasize from one part of the body to another, and the best way to prevent this is through early detection.
Early warning signs of cancer are usually quite obvious, such as increased risk of developing breast or colon cancer. Other kinds of cancer include breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and stomach cancer.
For children, the same symptoms like “reduced growth” and weight loss often occur in many other disorders including allergies, ear infections, ear mites, food intolerance, chronic fatigue, cold sores, eczema, ear infections, and eczema flare ups. These symptoms may also be caused by malnutrition or underlying disorders.
Many of the cancer symptoms are very subtle, and children are known to dismiss them as being part of growing up. However, these early symptoms of cancer are considered strong indicators that something is not right and should be treated as soon as possible.
Although it is rare for children to develop cancer on their own, there are other conditions and diseases that often mimic the symptoms of cancer. For example, Lyme disease and parotid gland tumors can mimic the symptoms of cancer.
Certain cancers are linked to common exposures such as radiation or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy often causes leukemia, lymphoma, or brain tumors; chemotherapy can cause leukemias and brain tumors; smoking and alcohol can cause tumors; and, radiation exposure and viral infections can cause cancers of the liver, bladder, thyroid, intestines, skin, or breast.
Abnormalities in bone density, hypercalcemia, and leukocytosis, an abnormal and telltale signs of cancer, can be diagnosed with a bone scan. The lump is often characterized by a red and raised surface, and a test called a fluoroscopy can be used to see the malignant cells. Contrast media, radiofrequency ablation, or percutaneous endoscopic retrobulbar thermocoagulation, a surgical procedure that uses low-voltage electricity to ablate tumor cells, can also be used.
In general, the signs of cancer tend to appear between ages 30 and 65, but these are also the age groups when we begin to notice the onset of other diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer of the bladder, colorectal cancer, osteoporosis, and Parkinson’s disease. It is common for early signs of cancer to begin before the development of these other conditions.
The proper testing and diagnosis are crucial to preventing cancer. Each individual is different, so each will react differently to the same tests, but the earlier a doctor can detect it, the better.
The early warning signs of cancer can be treated with radiation therapy, but the most successful treatment is surgery. A scan or biopsy can confirm the presence of cancer, and if cancer is found, there are surgical procedures available to remove the tumor. Since cancer cells frequently spread to other parts of the body, the chance of survival is greatly improved with early detection.
It is important to catch the earliest signs of cancer before it has the opportunity to spread, or to make the wrong diagnosis. Early detection is very important, and the advances in technology for the purpose of early detection make it easier than ever to check on anyone’s health.