Can We Prevent Cancer Earlier?

Can We Prevent Cancer Earlier? — Needless to say, one of the most deadliest and probably one of the most frighteining disease in the world today is cancer. However, some people believe that actually we can prevent it earlier. If we could make some different decisions, probably any cancers would never happen.

That sounds like an audacious statement. Cancer after all, comes “out of the blue” — we report that it happened “suddenly,” that it came “without warning.” It is the proverbial bolt of lightning that changes our lives all in one strike. How could we prevent lightning?

But in fact, a newly emerging consensus holds that 90 percent of cancers are rooted in environmental or behavioral causes. That means we have a much larger window for rooting out cancer early — and what’s more, a much wider opportunity to head it off before it ever comes close. The lever for opportunity, though, is us — we need to act.

When you think about it, that makes absolute sense. Consider smoking, which remains the leading cause of cancer in the US. If every smoker quit right now, today, it’d reduce the number of deaths by 440,000, and the number of cancer cases by about 200,000.

Presto! You’ve just prevented cancer in 25 to 30 percent of the cases in this country. (Of course that’s just a pipe dream, so to speak, but you get the idea.)

And there are more examples. Look at the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths: colon cancer. Simple screening strategies such as colonoscopies and fecal blood tests already turn up nearly 150,000 cases of colon cancers early. Greater diligence could turn up tens of thousands more cases (The US Preventive Service Task Force has specific recommendations for colon cancer screening here). This is preventive medicine in action, saving thousands of lives. Same thing with cervical cancer, where another easy test — the Pap smear — has saved thousands of lives.

Can We Prevent Cancer Earlier? Of course, screening tests aren’t a panacea. Recent news on PSA tests for prostate cancer and mammography for breast cancer demonstrates that screening is only effective when it’s deployed judiciously and selectively.

Tags: Can We Prevent Cancer Earlier? Prevent Cancer Earlier, Cancer Preventable.