Cancer: The Costs, Causes, and Cures
Cancer is a major killer of people all around the globe. We do not have a definite cure, but the amount of research done on this one disease costs on the average of $1.2 billion dollars annually, and $20 billion annually in care of cancer patients.
What is Cancer?
Cancer is a broad ranging term that is used by many people, including medical professionals such as doctors. Cancer, in its most fatal and aggressive form, is of a larger class of diseases known as neoplasms. There are two forms of a neoplasm: benign or malignant. A benign neoplasm is encapsulated, or surrounded, so that it's growth is restricted, whereas a malignant neoplasm is not closed in.
Malignant tumors grow much more quickly than benign forms and spread into the surrounding normal tissue, and virtually destroy it, (Grolier Electronic
Encyclopedia, Cancer).
The question is, what exactly is cancer? Cancer, is the break down and mutation of the cells of the body, when the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) sequences in those molecules are disrupted and errors form in the structures, (Grolier,
Genetic Code). This mutation spreads through surrounding tissue until it disrupts major systems in the body (such as respiratory, digestive and waste management) cause that system to fail.
What causes Cancer to become active?
Since it is believed that almost all people have some type of cancer in their body, (although benign), any person that comes in contact with a carcinogen,
(any cancer-causing agent), will cause these benign cells to become malignant.
It is when the cells become malignant, that cancer actually occurs. Cancer, in this context, can be caused by many different agents; chemical, biological or physical. Chemical Agents
Chemicals that can cause a benign cell to become active include things such as complex hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, certain metals, drugs, hormones, and naturally occurring chemicals in plants and molds. Hydrocarbons and nitrosamines can be found in cigarette smoke and may contribute to the condition called "lung cancer". Other chemicals that seem to cause incidents of "bladder cancer", such as 2-naphthylamine, were used in the dye industry for dyeing cloth, but when a number of cases of cancer turned up, its use was discontinued. Vinyl Chloride, a chemical gas, has also appeared, seeming to cause "liver can...
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...ct the end of most major diseases early in the next century. Once we are able to read and modify the data and instructions found in our own DNA, we can directly access the way we as living beings will grow and evolve. However, we will have another problem, and that is of population. If there are no diseases to disrupt the growth of our population on this planet, we will soon overcrowd, and we may not yet have the technology to leave this world. However, I think we will still be better off without cancer.
References
Tetzeli, R. (1990). Can Power Lines Give You Cancer? FORTLINE Magazine, 49, 80-
85
Pitot, H.C. M.D. et al. (1992) Cancer. Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia,1992 ed.
Search
phrases: CANCER, GENETIC CODE, DNA, RNA
Clarke, D. & Dartford, M. ( 1992). Cancer Treatment. How It Works: The New
Illustrated
Science and Invention Encyclopedia, 414-418
Abeloff, M.D. et al (1991) Cancer. Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia, 534-542
Drill, V.A. et al (1991) Drugs and Drug Action - Chemotherapy. Encyclopedia
Britannica:
Macropedia, 553-560
American Cancer Society et al (1992) Cancer. Compton's Multimedia
Encyclopedia,1992 ed.
Search phrases: CANCER, CHEMOTHERAPY, GENETICS
Population continues to grow and is expected to reach an all time high in future years. There are tons of different reasons for why population is rising so quickly. In document d, it says, "Every second 5 people are born and 2 people die, a net gain of 3 people. This fact from document d shows one reason why population growth is at all time high. Document d, also states "At this rate, the world population will double every 40 years and would be 12 billion in 40 years, 24 billion in 80 years, and more than 48 billion in 120 years." This will create tons of difficulties, like the amount of food and supplies needed for the world, which will make it nearly impossible for supplies to keep pace with the population growth. Document a shows
of Medicine. People have been looking for a cure but it cost a large amount of money. To find the cure we are going to need more money for research.
“We are burdensome to the world, the resources are scarcely adequate for us.” Tertullian, a philosopher from the third century had said this about our world when the population was mere 200 million. This statement can be taken two different ways. The first would be to think that our resources are limited and we need to be worried. The second would be to say people have been worried about overpopulation forever but everything seems to have worked out. There is no doubt that there are many people inhabiting this earth but the real question is if too many of us is a real threat to humanity.
Cancer is a disease when abnormal cells divide without control and invade other tissues in the body. Normal cells divide in a regulated way to generate new cells that are needed to keep the body healthy. Cancer cells are when the normal cell division process goes awry. When this happens cells don’t die like they’re supposed to, and new cells are produced when the body doesn’t need them. When cancer cells form a lump of tissue it’s called a tumor. There are two types of tumors, malignant, and benign. A benign tumor isn’t cancerous, and can often be removed, and in most cases, they don’t come back. Benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body like malignant tumors. Malignant tumors are cancerous. The cells within the malignant tumor spread from one part of the body to another and also invade nearby tissue which is called metastasis.
“An Essay on the Principle of Population” is written by Thomas Malthus where he outlines his theory on population growth. He thought that if population continued to grow, food production wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand and he believed that many people would die due to famine. Either people would have to use more contraception to drop the birth rate, or the death rate would increase due to wars, disease or
It has been difficult to develop an accurate definition for cancer. The reputed British oncologist Willis has defined cancer as "an abnormal mass of tissue, the growth of which exceeds and is uncoordinated with that of the normal tissues and persists in the same excessive manner after cessation of the stimuli which evoked the change" (Cotran et al., 1999).
No one, no matter how weak or strong, rich or poor, tall or small, is safe from the reach of cancer. Cancer is a dangerous disease killing millions every year without any for sure or easy way to treat it. For years people have tried to raise awareness towards cancer but now that it threatens the lives of so many do people listen and try to help. However even with the help of dozens of different groups and agencies cancer rates continue to grow at an alarming rate. Although we have found ways to treat it we only have theories on how to prevent and stop it. What make cancer so deadly are its Symptoms, commonness, dangerous treatments, the many different areas it can affect, and the cost encored.
...that increases to worsen by every year, month, day, hour, minute and second. Consequences of overpopulation could even result to making earth not even livable anymore and force to look for another planet to reside in. This is a problem that will take the effort of everyone in our population to solve and make it as not as much of threat that it is now. Hopefully we realize the affects overpopulation can have on our world and the people in it, and find a way to resolve the issue. Though from my research, the effects of overpopulation look inevitable and sooner or later will take course.
To understand the problem of cancer treatment, one has to know the history of cancer. It 's a disease that kills millions a year [sic] and a slew of hoped-for miracle treatments have gone nowhere (Begley “Could This Be the End of Cancer”). President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 (Begley “Curing Cancer”). This is the main reason why cancer treatment is such a huge issue today. Ever since then, scientists, doctors, researchers, and experts have been looking for “a cure” in cancer treatment. Since it is a major disease that people get as of 2010 569,490 people would have died from cancer just that year (Begley ‘Curing Cancer’). The 569,490 people dying each year changes depending on what treatment people have and how many are diagnosed each year. The rate of cancer for men and women dropped in just new cancer cases in November 2008 (Graham). Old cancer
Overpopulation has become a drastic issue, for no one knows how many people the earth
Cancers are constantly evolving, Jan 24, 2011 About 300 of every 100,000 Americans develop cancer each year, which means the U.S. has the seventh highest cancer rate in the world.The good news is that scientists estimate up to one-third of the most common cancers can be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, being more physically active, and eating more healthfully. The high cancer incidence in the U.S. and other countries is not inevitable, Lifestyle changes can really make a difference. For example, maintaining a healthy weight throughout life could prevent more than 100,000 incidences of cancer (Rosen, 2010).
Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Tumors are then created and interfering with the digestive, nervous and circulatory systems. It is one of the most leading causes of death, reaching at about 8.2 million deaths in 2012. It is expected that cancer will rise from 14 million to 22 million within the next 2 decades. With over 100 cancer research centers in the United States studying how to treat this disease, people need to understand the importance of donating also with the awareness of signs and symptoms in the early stages. But, what are we doing about it? Do we have the technology to finally be able to put this deadly disease to an end?
According to the textbook cancer is actually a group of diseases that are characterized by cells that can grow out of control and individually, and may attack other tissues and organs. (Page 404)
Because 7.6 million people die from cancer every year, action should be taken to find a permanent and effective cure. There is no reason why cancer patients should not receive effective and affordable treatment. Even though there are cancer treatments currently, these treatments being effective, they are costly and cause great pain to the patient.
This problem of population growth leads to a number of solutions that could have significant implications on the quality of life. Taking no action and allowing population to grow unchecked could possibly risk the entire human species if food or clean water were to become unavailable worldwide. Aiming for zero population growth would in theory maintain the existing quality of life since a stable population would not increase their use of resources. However not all resources are renewable, so scarcities could still occur with a fixed population size. In an extreme case permanent resource depletion under zero population growth could have the same extinction effect that unchecked growth can lead to. Despite the escalating risk of unchecked population growth, technological advances necessitated by the increase in population will at least maintain the quality of life and could possibly improve conditions.