Over 1.7 million people in the U.S. get cancer every year and out of those, 600,000 of them die. The second most death in America is caused by cancer In 2022, over 10 million people died worldwide because of cancer. We still do not have a clear way to cure cancer. Scientists are working on a cure to remove cancer. They have to learn deeply about cancer like when cancer was discovered, different types of cancer, and things that cause cancer.
Cancer was discovered during 3000 B.C. Back then, they used to call cancer “carcinoma”. It was renamed to “cancer” during 370 B.C. by a group called “Greek Physician Hippocrates.” Not only that, there are a lot of different types of cancer. In fact, there are over 200 types of cancer. The most common is breast cancer. Over 300,000 people get this type of cancer. However, this one is not too deadly. The reason for so many deaths is because of Lung or Bronchial cancer. People do not die immediately, but the chance of surviving for over 5 years is less than 22%.
There are a lot of cancer cases but what actually causes cancer? The most common activities that cause cancer are smoking, drinking alcohol, becoming obese, and exposing oneself to ultraviolet radiation. For example, Smoking is one of the reasons why people get lung cancer. When you inhale the smoke, a chemical called a carcinogen goes into your body. The carcinogen makes changes in the lung tissue immediately after you inhale. At first, the body will eventually repair the damage, but as you continue smoking, the cells become more damaged.
Is there a way to cure cancer? Unfortunately, there is no cure for any type of cancer no matter how small or big however, there are treatments you can get to extend your lifespan. The main types of treatment occur in cancer levels 1-2, and the doctors will burn the cells that have been infected by cancer. If the patient is at levels 3-4, they will use either chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is when the doctors give you powerful drugs that kill fast–growing cells, unfortunately It will kill the non-infected cells too, but it will help with symptoms and infected cells. Radiation Therapy is when you go into a room full of high-dose radiation to kill cancer cells and tumors. You would have to go through Radiation Therapy for 10 minutes each day, for 8 weeks. Chemotherapy takes up to 10 hours, but the patients usually need multiple rounds. Cancer is still impossible to cure even with the advanced technology. There are only about 26,000 doctors that have to treat over 500 patients by themselves. The AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) is trying to find a cure for cancer.
Even though there is no clear cure for cancer, there is a chance we might figure out a huge step into cancer research. You see, an animal called the naked mole rat had never gone through cancer ever before. Even with their so-called “ugly” appearance, they never get cancer because of melanocytes. Melanocytes prevent the cells from overgrowing, and it prevents the DNA from getting harmed by radiation.