A healthy person can get cancer from being around pollutants, drinking too much alcohol, being exposed to the sunlight in excess, having frequent sunburns, being obese, having unsafe sex, being around secondhand smoke or chemicals in the household or workplace etc.
Over 90% of cancers are observed to have some type of genetic alteration.
Some of these alterations that cause cancer are inherited, while others are sporadic, which means they occur by chance or occur from environmental exposures (usually over many years).
The 5 risk factors for cancer are age, cancer causing substances, family history of cancer, diet and chronic inflammation.
Signs that you could have cancer include.
Unusual lump or swelling anywhere on the body.
Unexplained weight loss.
Unexplained aches or pains.
Unexplained bruising or bleeding.
Fatigue.
And very heavy night sweats or fever as sweating at night or having a high temperature could indicate possible cancer but it may also be from other infections or from certain medications.
A person with cancer lives between 1 to 5 years with treatment although without treatment the cancer patient may only live a few months to 6 months or so depending on how far advanced the cancer is.
Cancer can go away forever and be cured but it depends on the type of cancer as not all cancers are curable and some cancers may return even with treatment.
Some people have been cured of certain cancers fully and then later the cancer returned again and others have been fully cured of the cancer and lived a normal life.
You can have cancer and not know it and some cancers will grow very slowly and may not affect someone for many years.
Although some cancers are more aggressive than others and grow faster and be noticed sooner..
People who gets cancer the most are people that are inactive, unhealthy, smokers, people aged 50 and over and people who have a family history of cancer.
Your risk of getting cancer increases the older you get and lifestyle factors such as your weight, your diet, smoking and how active you are, sun exposure, use of tanning beds and even how much alcohol you consume increases your risk of cancer.
You can in some cases beat cancer without chemo by having surgery or taking cancer treatment medications.
In some cases you may need chemotherapy to fully get rid of the cancer but some types of cancer can be removed and cured completely through surgery.
Chemo is not recommended when the potential risks of chemo outweigh the benefits.
Chemotherapy has considerable side effects and it may not be safe for some people that have underlying conditions.
If someone has undergone three or more chemotherapy treatments for your cancer and the tumors continue to grow or spread, it may be time for them to consider stopping chemotherapy.
People over age 65 with cancer can have a stronger reaction to chemotherapy treatments.
This means that they may have worse side effects or take longer to recover after chemotherapy treatment ends.
It is important to remember that chemotherapy can be a treatment option for patients of any age.
The higher the risk of recurrence, the greater the potential benefit of chemotherapy.
If the risk of recurrence is low, the side effects of chemotherapy are more likely to outweigh the potential benefits.
Chemo is covered by insurance as chemo is a medically necessary procedure although you may need to pay a small portion of the chemo cost although some chemo is covered by some health insurance policies.
Radiotherapy is cheaper cancer treatment than chemotherapy although radiotherapy is mostly used for treating rectal cancer and chemotherapy is used for treating other forms of cancer.
The price of chemotherapy ranges from $1,000.00 to as much as $12,000.00
With insurance you may only pay $136.00 to $169.00 out of pocket for the chemotherapy treatment.
Most people will start chemotherapy within 30 days to 90 days after surgery.
Some people may start chemo within a few weeks after surgery but most people wait until at least 30 days after surgery to begin chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is most often used when the cancer gets into stage 2 after any other treatments don't help.
Although even at stage 1 cancer chemotherapy may be used as the sooner you start chemotherapy the higher chance you have at getting rid of the cancer before it progresses.