Surviving cancer through early detection

People are getting older and older – and are suffering more frequently from CancerCancer usually occurs in the second half of life and tumors are being found more quickly thanks to improved screening programs.

>People are getting older and older - and are getting cancer more frequently. Cancer usually occurs in the second half of life and tumors are being found more quickly thanks to improved screening programs. The number of cancer patients who die from a tumor has fallen by 1980 percent since 20. Nevertheless, more and more people have to expect to get cancer.

“Anyone who is diagnosed with cancer at an early stage of the disease today has a much greater chance of being cured or at least of Disease to live,” says Dr. Reinhold Lunow, medical director of the practice clinic BornheimBetween 1998 and 2008, cancer mortality in Germany fell by 13 percent among women and by 18 percent among men.

Nevertheless, one in four deaths in this country is due to cancer. This makes cancer the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular disease, and the trend is increasing. Breast, lung and colon cancer are the most common among women, while lung, colon and Prostate cancer.

The risk of developing cancer often depends on lifestyle and genetic predisposition. However, the chance of surviving cancer increases with the degree of individual prevention. For one and the same disease, women and men have a different risk of death. For example, the mortality rate for men in the case of oral cavity and laryngeal cancer is more than five times higher than for women. This is because men go to the screening as women.

In women, however, the number of lung cancer cases has risen in recent years, caused by increasing cigarette consumption since the 1980s. Smoking (and passive smoking) is responsible for a quarter to a third of all cancer deaths in both sexes; after all, in addition to the lungs and bronchi, the lips, oral cavity, larynx and trachea are often affected by malignant tumors.

Some types of cancer initially cause no symptoms

>It is particularly important to have regular check-ups by a specialist. To this end, Dr. Lunow and his team of doctors carry out individual healthCheck-ups to detect cancer risks and cancer cases at an early stage. Some types of cancer are particularly insidious because there are not yet adequate treatments for them and they initially cause little or no symptoms.

This applies to pancreatic cancer, for example, which the patient usually only notices at a late stage when the tumor is already spreading aggressively. Risk factors for this cancer include high-fat Nutrition, alcohol consumption and smoking. Together with esophageal cancer, it only accounts for three to four percent of all cancers, but together they both cause almost one in ten cancer deaths. The chance of surviving advanced pancreatic cancer five years after surgical removal is significantly lower at less than ten percent compared to breast cancer (85 percent) and prostate cancer (90 percent).

Early and regular prevention is crucial

>"Medical knowledge about cancer is advancing in leaps and bounds," says Dr. Lunow. "Nevertheless, prevention and regular check-ups remain the most important thing. The earlier a tumor or the risks that can cause cancer are detected, the greater the chances of surviving cancer."

(Images: Rainer Sturm/pixelio.de; shamleen/Foto-
lia.com; Sven Weber/Fotolia.com)