I know four people with cancer right now.

[Radical Activist]

I have four friends who were recently diagnosed with cancer or are currently going through chemotherapy. It seems odd. Is this normal? Are there really that many people with cancer right now? Thankfully it looks like all four are going to be OK but its a horrible experience.

I think its going to get worse before we accept that cancer is a byproduct of the chemicals and radiation we create as part of maintaining our modern lifestyle.

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. I've known six people with cancer in recent years

sadly only one of them made it. :(

There's way too much of it going around, and it's definitely a byproduct of the chemicals we take into our body one way or another. Usually unknowingly.

[seemunkee]

2. Cancer rates are going down

Its still at epidemic rates though, 8 million people will die from it this year.

I hope they don't need it but
Clinical trial information
http://www.ctsu.org/

NCI on line support and/or phone line
1-800-4-Cancer
http://cis.nci.nih.gov/contact/contact.html

Support from the Lance Armstong Foundation
http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.2662949/k.73BB/Get_OneonOne_Support.htm

Good luck to your friends.

[Radical Activist]

7. Thanks

for those links. Luckily, all of these friends have health care coverage so it was caught early. I had a couple other friends who weren't that lucky.

[TZ]

3. Cancer is also genetically based

And many scientists think that longer lives are leading to more cases of cancer.
Of course you could be living in a "cancer cluster" which usually is indicative of some sort of environmental toxin...

[yellowdogintexas]

4. Part of it is that things now known to be cancer were not diagnosable 50 years

ago. People just got sick and died, without diagnosis, esp in poorer areas.

[Radical Activist]

6. I've thought that.

Although an awful lot of cases are tied to things we weren't exposed to 60 years ago.

[pitohui]

5. 1 in 3 americans will get cancer if you include skin, otherwise 1 in 4

it is unavoidable that you will know many people w. cancer, including friends and family members, if you get out at all, it's just statistics

[undeterred]

8. You get to a certain age, and people start getting sick.

My dog had cancer in 2000, and he was cured at a vet school. But I was amazed to see the number of domestic animals which are getting cancer. I remember talking to one of the other pet owners - her dog had cancer of the jaw, and she had already lost her sister and her father to cancer in the previous year. Sometimes when it rains, it pours.

[applegrove]

9. I worked at a local cancer centre and they were in the process of doubling

the size of their building... because they expect cancer rates to more than double...to go up by like 80% or so due to baby boomers getting old I think. We have many more carcinogens in our lives that we had when previous generations lived.

[undeterred]

10. There is also the effect of people not getting to the doctor

soon enough because they don't have health insurance.

Eight years ago my best friend died of ovarian cancer. She was going through a divorce and lost her health insurance. She did go to a doctor with complaints of abdominal pain, but it was decided to wait until she was insured to do a full workup. Abdominal pain in women can be caused by a lot of different things, many of them fairly innocent. But hers wasn't. By the time she was diagnosed she had untreatable stage 4 ovarian cancer and died in 2 months. She was 42. I consider her death a direct result of being uninsured.

[applegrove]

12. That is very sad. I am especially glad that you Americans will have

health care under this president. Will save more than a few lives. Will save on bankruptcies. Will make a world of difference.

[undeterred]

14. I hope that is true.

[astral]

11. I do not believe cancer is proven to be genetically based.

People who have it 'run in families' are people who have learned from their families bad eating / health habits.

Or, if the cancer is due to some horrible pollution in a particular are, people who live in the area will have higher rates of cancer, hence the family connection looks like it exists.

What kinds of cancer do these people have? Do they all live in the same area?

[applegrove]

13. I've heard cancer described as a breakdown of the system where

the ends of genes say one more time copy this nucleous and create more cells. So if you drink lots of hot tea the cells in your esophagus are saying one more time copy this cell. As your cells repair themselves there is wear and tear on the ends of the gene. When you have cancer the direction one more time has been worn away completely and all that is left is instructions to copy this cell. Thus the rapid growth of cells that is cancer.

Wouldn't some people in some families be born with more vulnerability to the cells being worn off? Breast cancer etc.? I agree that the environment can be the major cause of cancer but it does run in families too. Viruses can cause cancer. Anything that wears off the instruction "one more time" can cause cancer. Mostly it is the wearing down of cells though through a variety of stressors.

[seemunkee]

15. Yes it is

Or at least susceptibility to it is. Breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancers have inheritable risks.