Fact sheet.........

1
Cancer The Top Killer

Cancer is one of the most common diseases of developed countries,
accounting for roughly one in four deaths. It is the number one killer
disease in Hong Kong, and lung cancer being the most common form.
Cancer is not a single disease with a single cause and a single type of
treatment. There are more than 200 different kinds of cancer, each with
its own name and treatment.

What is Cancer?
Cancer is a non-transmissible disease characterised by uncontrolled and
disordered cell division. Cells normally divide in an orderly and controlled
manner. But when the control signals in a normal cell go wrong, the cell
will continue to divide, forming a mass of abnormal cells, which is known as
a tumour. Tumours can either be benign or malignant.

Benign tumours do not destroy the tissues where they originated nor
spread out to other parts of the body, so they are not cancerous. If they
continue to grow at the original site, they may cause a problem by pressing
on the surrounding organs or tissues.

Malignant tumours, the cancers, are far more dangerous since they invade
and destroy the tissues where they originated, and spread out, via the
bloodstream or lymphatic system, to other tissues or organs to form
secondary growths. They may upset the organism s homeostasis and
eventually kill the organism.







It should be noted that both benign and malignant tumours involve a huge
drain on the body due to the high demand for nutrients that is created by
the rapid and continual cell division.
Cells forming a tumour
2.........Fact sheet
Causes of Cancer

No one knows exactly what causes all cancers. However, all cancer cells
contain abnormal genetic material. A change in any gene is called a
mutation. A mutated gene that causes cancer is known as an oncogene
after the Greek word onkos meaning bulk or mass. Mutations are not
unusual events, and most mutated cells are either crippled in some ways
that result in their early death or are destroyed by the body's immune
system. Since most cells can be replaced, this usually has no detrimental
effect on the body. Cancerous cells, however, manage to escape both
possible fates, so, although the mutation may originally occur only in one
cell, it is passed on to all that cell s descendents. By the time it is detected,
a typical tumour usually contains about a thousand million cells.

It is thought that a single mutation cannot be responsible for cancer but
that several independent rare accidents must all occur in one cell. A
factor which brings about any mutation is called a mutagen and is described
as mutagenic. Any agent that causes cancer is called a carcinogen and is
described as carcinogenic. So, some mutagens are carcinogenic.

Some of the factors that can increase the incidence of mutation, and hence
the likelihood of cancer, are as follows:

n Ionising radiation
This includes X-rays, gamma rays and particles
from the decay of radioactive elements. They can
break the DNA strands in cells.

n Chemicals
Many different chemicals have been shown to be
carcinogenic, these include tar in tobacco smoke,
vinyl chloride and aniline dyes. All these chemicals
damage DNA molecules.


Fact sheet.........3
n Viral infection
Viruses that cause cancer usually carry oncogenes, or regulatory
genes that can become oncogenes. Some cancers are known to be
caused by viruses, e.g. nasopharyngeal cancer, leukaemia (cancer of
the white blood cells) and cervical cancer.

n Hereditary predisposition
Cancer tends to be more common in some families than others,
indicating a genetic link. In most cases it is believed that the disease
itself is not inherited, but susceptibility to the factors that cause the
disease is inherited. For example, the inherited form of cancer in the
retina of the eye is caused by an error on chromosome 13.

n Certain lifestyles
Eating over-processed and refined foods which are low in fibre, or
foods that are too high in fat, will increase the development of
colon cancer, rectum cancer, breast cancer or stomach cancer.
Nasopharyngeal cancer is closely related to eating too much salted
fish since childhood.
Excess body weight and physical inactivity account for one-fourth
to one-third of breast cancer and cancers of the colon,
endometrium, kidney and oesophagus.
Smoking is a health hazard which can lead to lung cancer, oral
cancer, oesophageal cancer, laryngeal and bladder cancers
whereas alcoholism can lead to liver cancer.

4.........Fact sheet
Treatment of Cancer

The type of treatment depends on the type of cancer, the location of
tumour and how far the cancer cells have spread. A biopsy, involving the
removal and examination of a small piece of tissue, is usually done first for
diagnosis purposes. There are three principal ways of treating cancer:
1. Surgery physical removal of the
cancerous growth, depending on its type,
nearby tissues and organs.
2. Radiotherapy treating the cancer cells
with X-rays or other sources of radiation. It
involves beaming radiation into the body or
placing a small amount of radioactive
material directly in the body.
3. Chemotherapy involves using anti-cancer drugs to destroy cancer
cells.

Complementary, unconventional, or alernative therapies are
becoming increasingly more popular. These include Qi-gong, traditional
Chinese medicine, nutritional therapy, etc.. Some people look to
complementary therapies to ease their symptoms and improve ther health
while undergoing standard treatments. Others are searching for hope
when standard therapeutic methods fail.
Fact sheet.........5
Statistics in Hong Kong
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Hong Kong Top Ten Cancer in 1999
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Websites:
1. Hospital Authority
http://www.ha.org.hk/
2. Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society
http://www.hkacs.org.hk/
3. Hong Kong Medical Association
http://www.hkma.com.hk/
4. Central Health Unit
http://www.info.gov.hk/healthzone/
5. National Cancer Institute
http://www.nci.nih.gov/