Enjoy balloon ride after preventing cancer!
Prevent Cancer – cut your cancer risks, know symptoms and do regular cancer screening
Almost 1 in 2 people will develop cancer during their lifetime. In the UK, the 4 most common cancers are breast cancer (8 out of 10 women with it are aged over 50), lung cancer, prostate cancer (most common cancer in men), bowel cancer. 86% of UK women with breast cancer now survive for at least 5 years.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been significant delays and a lot of cancer patients still remain to be identified.
“Symptoms of cancer can be vague and hard to define. In UK tens of thousands of people have cancer and don’t even know it, due to lack of capacity in diagnostics here and inefficiency of our referral processes. If patients are not realising they may have an issue, until the pain is overwhelming enough for a visit to A&E, then public health messaging has failed. We need a well-funded Government campaign like the infamous “Stay Home” messaging that we all became used to during lockdown. We must focus on encouraging people to come forward with symptoms. We all know the difference an early diagnosis will make, but the ‘stay home’ message has meant tens of thousands of people have cancer and don’t even know it. Estimates vary, but this will undoubtedly lead to thousands of lives being lost unnecessarily over the coming years. The NHS ‘just’ campaign was a fantastic initiative, but that seems to have gone quiet. It needs political leadership to force the message through. This has been sorely lacking.
The development of Community Diagnostic Hubs across the country, with the Government’s support, is making some progress towards bridging this gap, e.g. the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust Hub in Taunton“.
– As a world cancer specialist in the UK, Professor Karol Sikora says.
If cancer seems to run in your family, UK NICE advises on when you need referral for assessment of cancer risk.
Steps to prevent cancer: which more than 135,000 people get every year in Britain [Cancer Research UK]. So World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends these actions to prevent cancer.
- If you smoke tobacco, STOP – tobacco use is the single greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer death.
2. Take regular exercise, and eat a sensible diet.
3. 
Being overweight or obese is linked to many types of cancer such as oesophagus, colorectal, breast, endometrial and kidney.
4. Alcohol use is a risk factor for many cancer types including cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectal and breast. Risk of cancer increases with the amount of alcohol consumed.
5. Outdoor air pollution contributed to 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016, of which 6% were lung cancer deaths.
6. Avoid excessive exposure to Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, to UV-emitting tanning devices and to the sun. Using sunscreen and protective clothing are effective preventive measures.
Have you got 5 minutes to take the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) online prevent cancer check?
Answer a few simple questions about lifestyle, and see where you are doing well and where you could make positive changes to reduce your cancer risk.
Cancer screening to detect cancers early and get right treatments:
**. For women with the earliest breast cancer tumours, survival rates are near 100%.
**. New NHS bowel cancer screening is being rolled out to all men and women in England aged 50-74, using a new easier ‘FIT home testing kit” every two years. If you are age 75 +, you can ask for a home testing kit every 2 years by calling the free NHS bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60.
This video shows you how to use the new FIT bowel cancer home testing kit. More about the bowel prevent cancer ‘FIT test‘; and how to use it is available to download in 10 different languages, from Bowel Cancer UK.
**. The UK NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme has introduced human papillomavirus (HPV). Screening for high-risk strains of the virus means it can be monitored and any cell changes can be spotted early on. All 12 and 13-year-olds in school Year 8 are offered the HPV vaccine on the NHS. This programme could eliminate cervical cancer completely, says the NHS.
**. Most cases of prostate cancer develop in men aged 50 or older. It’s the most common cancer in men, but most men with early prostate cancer don’t have symptoms. As UK NHS says, “symptoms do not usually appear until the prostate is large enough to affect the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the penis (urethra). When this happens, you may notice things like: an increased need to pee, straining while you pee, a feeling that your bladder has not fully emptied. Prostate cancer is not always life-threatening. But when it is, the earlier you catch it the more likely it is to be cured.
Answer three quick charity Prostate Cancer UK questions to check your risk. Men over 50 can ask their doctor for a PSA cancer screening blood test. This PSA test is still the best simple option for diagnosing prostate cancer, but not reliable enough for national screening. GPs should offer a ‘digital rectal examination’ in addition, to men who have decided to have a PSA blood test.
Most UK men are now offered a ‘multiparametric MRI cancer screening scan’ before a biopsy to help avoid unnecessary tests. The only sure way to find out if a man has prostate cancer is to do a biopsy on a sample of prostate tissue.
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page updated 21 October 2022. ©2022 by social enterprise Diabetes-cutmyrisks.co.uk.™ Ltd.