13 ms·
Most cancers cannot be prevented, they're genetic. Other diseases that can be prevented (obesity, smoking-related), require long-term media campaigns, cannot a
by sn_master 5y ago
Most cancers cannot be prevented, they're genetic.
Other diseases that can be prevented (obesity, smoking-related), require long-term media campaigns, cannot all of a sudden change people behavior. We have free will.
- sebmellen 5y agoEven if “most” cancers are genetic (do you have a source on that?) they absolutely can be prevented. For example, people with a family history of colon cancer can get colonoscopy screenings to check for polyps. Same goes for people with BRCA2, etc. And environmental factors play a gigantic role in the prevalence of cancer today.
- inter_netuser 5y agoCancers are failure of immunosurveillance. Yes, some genetic factors increase risks, but even in those cases cancers tend to show up after the age 40, when your immune system begins to falter due to thymus involution. At that point - everyone has some cancerous cells in their body, and often even multiple tumors. If you live long enough - you WILL gets some sort of a cancer. From a good pool of autopsies: 1.1 per patient. "There were 250 malignancies diagnosed in 225 patients, an average of 1.1 malignancies per patient. The average age of all patients autopsied was 48.3 years (range, 1-98 years)." doi:10.1001/jama.280.14.1245