I’m educated enough to generally understand that cancer is the result of a gene mutation, which activates rapid cell reproduction, but what about this growing/spreading tumor makes it fatal? Why can’t we just periodically remove the tumor as it continues grow, thereby (almost) completely eliminating any possible death threat from cancer?
***EDIT: thanks for all the responses to my question! Some of them are really great, and perfectly answer my question. Frankly, I was not aware that cancerous cells and tumors have, in so many ways, “a mind of their own”.***
***I’m very lucky to have been of general good health my whole life, but the threat of cancer as I age scares the daylights outta me — it literally keeps me up at night, often. I’m slightly relieved to realize that so much is known about cancer and so many different treatment options exist, depending on the diagnosis and prognosis. And I recognize this wealth of knowledge, understanding, and treatment options is growing almost by the day with modern medicine — and this helps put me at ease a little too.***
***Here’s to ongoing good health for me and you…!***
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You have to look for cancer at the right time in order to be able to successfully do something about it. Look too early and you won’t find it, its either not there yet or too small to detect. Look too late and its hard/impossible to track it all down and remove it.
So why not look more often? Because looking can cause harm. In false positives (no cancer but the person is told there is which results in anxiety and additional, unnecessary invasive tests and procedures). In cases where the investigative method causes damage itself or carries a risk.
There are also cases where cancers AREN’T fatal. Some develop so slowly you’re likely to die of other causes long before the cancer becomes a problem. But because we can’t be sure, we treat it and you suffer the side effects. If you hadn’t gone looking for it, and you never developed symptoms, you’d never have noticed.
Basically its hard to find cancer in the right window where its treatable and the treatment isn’t worse than the cancer itself.
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