Cancer: a Preventable Disease

Cancer: a preventable health disease Carlo Antonio B. Jao  One Sunday morning in April 2010, Juvina Jao, an unmarried woman of 47, went to medical center for her monthly check-up. As the doctor got her final results, she was told that a suspicious lump was found at the milk duct of her left part breast. This lump, according to the doctor, may lead to breast cancer (i.e. a malignant tumor that starts in the cells of the breast which usually grows among women). Ms. Juvina Jao felt anxiety apropos of her condition. However, the physician advised her that worrying too much would not help her. At this moment in time that people live in modernity, the word “impossible” does not exist anymore. With the help of newly invented technologies, people can have a society wherein severe problems can be solved easily. As for cancer, though it is a serious health disease, may become curable and preventable.   What is cancer? Numerous people still do not know how serious this kind of illness is and how it affects billions of people all over the world. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “cancer” originated from the Latin word “cancri” which means crab; affiliated to Greek “karkinos” which also defines as a crustacean animal. But scientifically, cancer is a malignant tumor that expands locally by invasion and systematically by metastasis. In conformity with Dr. George C. Pack MD, a cancer specialist, it is a natural process where an overworked and weakened immune system cannot kill this cancer cells as fast as it is multiplying.   Cancer is a condition of uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the human body. To know whether the cells are cancerous or not, consulting a physician is a much advisable since they possess right apparatuses for observations. As for them, physicians, normal cells usually grow and divide to replenish old and dead cells. They regenerate in a controlled way to produce newer cells that may keep the human body healthy and active. However,...