Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Cancer prevention is a popular topic that people wish me to write more in my Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog. Cancer prevention is the best possible way to reduce the death rate of cancer worldwide. According to Fundamentals of Cancer Prevention, written by David S. A. and Lisa M. H., cancer prevention research can be divided to 3 approaches to target different aspects in order to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary prevention.
 

Primary Cancer Prevention

Primary cancer prevention is an approach to reduce the impact of carcinogens. We can do this through administration of a chemopreventive agent or remove the environmental carcinogens. The main aim of primary prevention is to prevent a cancer from the very beginning to the developing by reducing individual risk.

 
There are many primary cancer prevention methods which include the lifestyle modification or interventions that modify risk. These methods will become more effective if those cancers in which causes are known.
 
Below are some of the factors that can help to reduce overall cancer incidence:

i. Minimize the exposure to carcinogens. For example, we should avoid from consuming tobacco which contains carcinogen.
 
ii. Dietary modification. For example, we should take balanced meal and reduce the consuming of salt, sugar and high cholesterol foods.
 
iii. Increasing physical activity. For example, we should do some exercises during our daily life like jogging, swimming and so on to keep our body fit.
 
As we all know, unhealthy diet and tobacco use are the leading risk factors for cancer. Smoking cessation is the best way to avoid ourselves from cancer developing. Benefis of quitting smoking begin within the first year of stopping and continue to increase. If you wish to know more about the benefits of smoking cessation, you may read the 15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation. In addition, the role of diet, nutrition and maintaining a healthy body weight is critical to lessen the cancer risk.
 

Secondary Cancer Prevention

Secondary cancer prevention is an approach to detect the abnormal changes at the beginning of the development of malignancy. It involves screening and early detection methods like mammogram, pap test and so on. This can help us to identify any abnormal changes of our body before they become cancerous. Therefore, it is effective to prevent cancer from fully developing. Sometimes, secondary cancer prevention can involve the treatment of precancerous lesions in an attempt to reverse carcinogenesis so that the lesion can regress.
 

Tertiary Cancer Prevention

Tertiary cancer prevention is an approach to control the cancer and prevention of disease-related complications. It involves a variety of aspects of patient care such as quality of life, adjuvant therapies, surgical intervention and palliative care.
 
In conclusion, we can see that the primary cancer prevention is the main role of cancer prevention. Unfortunately, the primary prevention research and efforts are largely underfunded. This lack of prioritization cause the delays in improving and delivering early detection and prevention methods that can save millions of lives.
 

Do you know any methods of cancer prevention? Come and share with us! Prevention is always better than cure!

Cancer is the most common cause of death especially the lung cancer in most of the developed countries. Lung cancer has been frequently recognized as the malignancy that is caused by environment and the cigarette smoking. I have described the cigarette smoking risk factor that causing the lung cancer in Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog these last few days. Therefore, I wish to write about another common risk factor which is environmental exposure so that we can take more appropriate prevention step of getting lung cancer.
 
Exposure to environmental carcinogens has been cited as the secondary risk factor of lung cancer independent of smoking. The exposure includes both outdoor and indoor air pollutants with contaminants of soil and drinking water. According to cancer research, the exposure of the carcinogens can occur because of both residential and occupational setting. There are many carcinogens exposing in our environment that will cause lung cancer. I just choose some major factors to be further reviewed.
 

Gas Radon Contributes to Lung Cancer

One of the carcinogens is gas radon. Gas radon and its radioactive progeny are the sources of exposure to inhaled radioactive substances. People who work at tin mines might be greatly exposed to radon. If the homes built on radon-containing soil, the residents might be exposed to the naturally occurring radioactive gas radon too. According to cancer research, residential radon is the primary cause of non-smoking related lung cancer.
 

Indoor Air Pollution Contributes to Lung Cancer

Sometimes, the indoor pollution which is caused by the cooking and heating will contribute to the developing of lung cancer too. For instance, during the time we are cooking the meat at high temperature, the potentially mutagenic cooking oil fumes and the carcinogenic metabolic products of heterocyclic amines will be released. Tai-an Chiang et al. showed that the fumes were not, or weakly mutagenic in the Salmonella assay when the distance between fume extractor and oil surface was 60 cm or less.
 

Outdoor Air Pollution Contributes to Lung Cancer

Outdoor air pollution is a contributor to the risk of lung cancer too. The fossil fuel combustion products are known carcinogens that will increase the risk of getting lung cancer. People who live in rural area have less lung cancer cases than the urban area residents regarding to the lower level of air pollution. Outdoor air pollution is composed of complex mixtures including the radionuclides, gas and particulate combustion products and fibers. Exposure to others respiratory carcinogens such as asbestos is related to the increased risk of lung cancer. How can we deal with the air pollution? Migrating to the rural area? The best way is to make our environment free of pollutant. We need to work together to help in increasing people’s awareness. Otherwise, we might pollute our rural area too at the end of the day.
 
In conclusion, by understanding the multiple components contributing to lung cancer which include the cigarette smoking and environmental exposure, we can identify the high-risk subgroups so that they can benefit from a proper screening or relevant interventions.
(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
 

Are you exposed to the environmental carcinogens? Take some actions to deal with it now.