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This medical student might not make it. You cant catch cancer. Basically it gets activated and it already exists in your body. The reason you see it come back is because they didnt get all of it.A medical student told me the other day, that things like cancer tumor removal fail a lot, because even if as little as one of the cancerous cells falls back, it will reinfect, and the operation goes useless. But what happens if you touch a cancerous person or animal? Will those cancerous cells e.g. on its skin infect you?
Any normal cell that self mutates is cancer so I have been told the two times I have had it.This medical student might not make it. You cant catch cancer. Basically it gets activated and it already exists in your body. The reason you see it come back is because they didnt get all of it.A medical student told me the other day, that things like cancer tumor removal fail a lot, because even if as little as one of the cancerous cells falls back, it will reinfect, and the operation goes useless. But what happens if you touch a cancerous person or animal? Will those cancerous cells e.g. on its skin infect you?
In fact, says Yusuf Hannun, who heads the Stony Brook University Cancer Center in New York, bad genes and DNA mutations appear to play a relatively small role in whether someone develops cancer. More important, he says, are environmental exposures, such as inhaling tobacco smoke and eating red meat. "Around 70 to 90 percent of cancer incidence appears to be related to external factors,” Hannun said, “whereas only 10 to 30 percent is related to those intrinsic factors I talked about, with mutation rates, et cetera."
A new study suggests that genetic "bad luck," which predisposes us to cancer, may be less of an influence on our risk for the disease than environmental factors.
Hannun and his colleagues used a number of complex approaches — including computer modeling, population studies and genetic analysis — to arrive at their conclusions, published Wednesday in the journal Nature. For example, they looked at how stem cells in different parts of the body divide and mutate, noting that a similar number of genetic errors did not lead to cancer in all tissues. The researchers also investigated how people's risk of cancer changes when they move from one place to another, suggesting a strong role for external factors in the development of cancer.
A study published earlier this year in the journal Science concluded that most cancer was the result of genetic bad luck, but this study arrives at an opposite conclusion. Hannun, however, does not entirely rule out genetic randomness when it comes to who gets cancer and who doesn't. "So, there is an element of luck in that,” he said, “but then, there is a larger element of exposures and external factors that increase that risk tremendously. So, what we want to do is identify those and dial it back so that we go back to that very low intrinsic level."
Study: Most Cancers Result From Lifestyle, Not Bad Luck
That's the broad takeaway from a survey that took the pulse not only of consumers in New York, Paris and Tokyo, but also in Moscow, Istanbul, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and other cities around the world. Ericsson ConsumerLab, the Swedish multinational provider of communication technology and services, conducted the annual report — called Hot Consumer Trends — surveying a sample representing 68 million urban citizens, aged 15 to 69. Results show that, in 2016, the Internet will be the foundation of how the world works, travels, socializes, watches TV, shops, eats, exercises and even contacts emergency services. Michael Bjorn, the leader of the Ericsson ConsumerLab team, says the group identified 10 unique trends regarding what consumers expect to see in their everyday lives, and all of them involve the Internet.
Consumers creating change
"The first trend we're talking about is what we call the 'Lifestyle Network Effect,'" Bjorn said. That is what happens when a lot of people are using the same service, so everyone's voice gains more value, he explained. But now, he said, "we're seeing this on such a large scale that it has, of course, a snowball effect on how we are living our lives." New technology is adopted so fast that early adopters — those hipsters using the new site before anyone else — have less and less influence on what happens in the mass market, he says, while successful new products and services reach consumers much more quickly than before.
A world of reporters
Another trend shows that more and more consumers are learning how to use the Internet to influence what is going on around them. Bjorn points to a trend Ericsson calls “Netizen Journalists” as an example. "We're seeing that people are actually aware of the fact that they are sharing more information now than they have ever done before,” Bjorn said. “But they are also telling us that they are looking at what other people are doing and sort of reading and watching what other people are sharing, and the effect is that they believe that they will have a bigger impact and influence on society."
Users surf the Internet at a Wi-Fi hotspot in Havana, Cuba
He points out that as many as 37 percent of those surveyed said that exposing a corrupt company online has a greater effect than reporting it to the police. Ordinary people increasingly rely on user reviews, he says, to share opinions and to influence businesses and authorities to change their behavior. For instance, 34 percent of smartphone users reported that they share experiences, especially bad ones, and 29 percent read them. But many people reported being concerned about the reliability of online reviews. Bjorn says as many as 46 percent of those surveyed would like to have a way to confirm if the rumors are true or false.
Hacking, virtual reality
Cancer Research UK found more than a third of all cases of cancer were avoidable - some 135,000. The charity also found that excess weight now caused 6.3% of all cancer cases - up from 5.5% in 2011 - while smoking as a cause had declined. It said more action was needed to tackle the "health threat" of obesity. Cancer Research UK found the country with the greatest proportion of preventable causes of cancer was Scotland with 41.5%, followed by Northern Ireland on 38%, Wales on 37.8%, and England on 37.3%.
Drinking alcohol was estimated to have caused 3.3% of cancers in the UK
Across the UK, smoking remained by far the leading cause of preventable cancer, although it dropped from 19.4% in 2011 to 15.1%. Second was being overweight or obese, and third was exposure to UV radiation from the sun and sunbeds. The standard way of diagnosing if someone is obese is by calculating their body mass index (BMI). It measures whether you're a healthy weight for your height. A BMI of more than 25 means you're overweight and a BMI of more than 30 means you're classified as obese, although there are some exceptions.
'I felt responsible'
Janet Boak, from Carlisle, was diagnosed with womb cancer at 51, after she noticed spots of blood four years after her menopause. She had a full hysterectomy, which successfully removed the cancer. It was during a subsequent check-up that she was told being obese had contributed to her risk of getting cancer. At the time, she was nearly 20 stone. "I felt like I was responsible for my own downfall," Janet, 55, said. "It stuck in my gut a bit, thinking I could maybe not have been in this position had I sorted my lifestyle out."
Janet Boak was told being obese contributed to her risk of getting cancer
Janet, a grandmother, has since lost nearly seven stone after she cut down on sugar, started cooking healthier meals from fresh ingredients and became more active. Cancer Research UK found overexposure to UV radiation caused about 13,600 cases of melanoma skin cancer a year - or 3.8% of all cancer cases. Other preventable causes of cancer included drinking alcohol and eating too little fibre, it said. However, overall the analysis found the proportion of preventable cases of cancer had fallen - from 42.7% in 2011 to 37.7%.
Cancer Research UK said the figures showed smoking prevention strategies were working, but more work was needed to tackle the growing problem of obesity. Prof Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK's prevention expert, said: "Obesity is a huge health threat right now, and it will only get worse if nothing is done. "The UK government must build on the successes of smoking prevention to reduce the number of weight-related cancers. "Banning junk food TV adverts before the 21:00 GMT watershed is an important part of the comprehensive approach needed."
Prof Mel Greaves, a cancer biologist at the Institute of Cancer Research, in London, said the study was an "endorsement" of the idea that many cancers were potentially preventable. But he said the idea that obesity itself or eating too little fibre "causes" cancer was "somewhat simplistic" and still needed to be explored further. "If obesity could be avoided, the impact on cancer rates is uncertain - but they would almost certainly decline significantly," Prof Greaves said. "Given the currently high rates of obesity in young people, this represents (like cigarette smoking) a major societal challenge beyond the bounds of the medical arena."
Rise in cancers 'caused by weight'
