Are You At Risk for Cancer?
Originally Appeared on the Colorado Grandparent
Disease prevention has become a popular topic in recent years. Every wellness website has a recipe on how to stay healthy. Meanwhile, it’s estimated that in 2018, 1.78 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States.
This staggering statistic translates into 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women being diagnosed with an invasive cancer during their lifetime.
Cancer carries an enormous emotional and economic impact on everyone involved – ranging from fear and anger with the diagnosis to physical debilitation and financial bankruptcy from treatment.
These factors have a far reaching emotional and economic impact, such that in 2015, 80.2 billion dollars were spent on cancer treatment and upwards of two-thirds of cancer survivors had suffered from anxiety, depression or adjustment disorders.
These statistics beg a question as to why cancer rates are so high? What can we do to reduce our chances of getting cancer?
A lion’s share of the answer is screening and prevention.
Surprisingly, only 5-10% of cancers are hereditary, caused by specific cancer-driving genetic mutations, while about 85% of cancers are related to our lifestyle and exposures — these could certainly be modified and potentially prevented. Unfortunately, for a lot of people who start being more “health-conscious” later in life, lifestyle modifications may not suffice, as by that point, they would have had years or possibly decades of adverse exposures. Hence, a regular and personalized cancer screening strategy becomes key, aimed towards a proactive approach to improving the odds of staying cancer free.
Cancer often takes many years to develop, and typically noticeable symptoms don’t develop until a very significant cancer cell burden has been reached. In fact, it takes about 1 billion cancer cells to be present for symptoms to appear, while such imaging as CAT scans and MRIs can detect some cancers which only half a million cells. Remarkably, emerging novel cutting-edge screening methods such as liquid biopsy may detect cancer DNA with only several hundred cells present.
Knowing your unique risks can help lower your odds of getting cancer and personalize screening appropriately. Screening tests include physical exam and history, laboratory and biomarker testing, imaging procedures as well as genetic and molecular testing.
When cancer cells are found early, in either pre-cancerous or early stages, well before symptoms appear, treatment outcomes are usually significantly better and cure rates higher.
Conversely, by the time symptoms appear cancer may have already grown sufficiently or advanced enough to increase the likelihood of spread (or metastasis) which typically compromises our ability to cure it.
It is important to remember that when your doctors suggest screening tests it does not necessarily mean that they think you have cancer, as appropriate screening should be done when one is symptom-free.
Mark Levandovsky, MD
Bio
As the founder and medical director of Preventive Medicine and Cancer Care practice, Dr. Levandovsky provides personalized care to health conscious individuals – as well as active cancer patients and cancer survivors. He focuses on integrative care delivery, genetic and molecular risk assessments, preventive strategies, education, nutrition and psycho-oncology.
With board certifications in Internal medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Dr. Mark Levandovsky specializes in helping patients understand their overall health “portrait,” allowing people to make decisions that prevent illness and ultimately put them in charge of their health.