Cancer Generalities and Survival:
A Holistic Approach to Enhance Survival Perspectives

Although cancer is still at large one of the deadliest diseases, research suggests there are very good chances of improving survival rates by treating the patient with a more holistic approach. Later on we will discuss this idea, but first we’ll have a look at some general aspects of the disease. Cancer is a generic name given to more than one hundred diseases, in which cells begin to grow out of control (“Learn about”). Although there are many kinds of cancer, they all start because of growth of abnormal cells. Cancer cells continue growing and instead of dying (the normal cell cycle), they form new abnormal cells. Cells become cancer cells when they cause damage to the DNA. In normal cells, when DNA is damaged the cell either repairs itself or dies. But in cancer cells there’s no repair and the cell doesn’t die either. Worse yet, these cells make new ones that the body doesn’t need and that have the same damaged DNA. Sometimes this DNA damage has some very obvious origin, like smoking, but very often it is not so easy to determine. Different kinds of cancer will grow at different rates. They will also respond to different treatments. Though cancer usually forms tumors, there are also tumors that are not cancer and are considered benign. According to the American Cancer Society, half of all men and third of women in the U.S. will develop some type of cancer. Those numbers sound really disencouraging, but good news is some changes in lifestyle can dramatically reduce such risk. For instance, reducing or quitting smoking, limiting time in the sun, physical activity and a better diet are all factors that can improve general well being and reduce cancer risk factor to a minimum. Cancer survival is measured as the proportion of