Cancer : The Victim and Target

Everybody can have cancer, but there are basically 4 kinds of people, who will be targeted by cancer. 

Cancer is a disease that increases the risk when you grow old. The more advanced your age above 55 year-old, the greater your risk of cancer. In children and adolescents, a relatively rare cancer. More than half of cancer attacks after the age of sixty years. The main reason why the new cancer appears in old age is slow growth. Cancer development is sometimes very slow and can only be detected at an advanced stage. Cancer can develop for years without you knowing it.

Experts have concluded that colon cancer, breast, endometrial (uterine lining), kidney, and esophagus are associated with obesity. Some studies also reported the relationship between obesity and gallbladder cancer, ovarian, and pancreas. Preventing weight gain may reduce cancer risk. Experts advise you to maintain healthy eating habits and physical activity in early life to prevent overweight and obesity. Those who are already overweight or obese are advised to avoid additional weight gain, and lose weight through low calorie diet and exercise. Even the weight is only 5-10 percent of the total weight can be beneficial to health.

You already should know that smoking increases the risk of lung cancer. Almost 90% of cases of death from lung cancer in men and 80% in women caused by smoking. However, note also that smoking may trigger development of other cancers, namely cancer of the mouth cavity, larynx, esophagus, bladder, stomach, kidney, cervix, and pancreas. Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals. More than 40 of them are cancer-triggering substances (carcinogens).

In most patients, the cause of sporadic cancer is the result of progressive accumulation of genetic mutations and / or epigenetic changes in a lifetime. This is called somatic mutations, which affect only certain tissues and not inherited. In some other small cancers, are caused by inherited gene defects. Some people are born with mutated genes inherited from the mother or father. Gene defects that generally this is a tumor suppressor gene making them susceptible to cancer. Inheritance of cancer patients often get cancer at a younger age than the general population and 50% chance to continue the child's susceptibility to the offspring.