Can we control cancer and its side effects?

April is Cancer Control Awareness Month (please see the On Health column). Sadly, with over 200 types of cancer, the medical community has no definitive answer of how to prevent cancer. It also doesn't fully understand the cause of each different type of cancer. The information that is known is often ignored by folks who continue to smoke even when they have a family history of cancer due to smoking. People still allow over-exposure to the sun without sunscreen even though they know it raises their risk for skin cancer.

Knowing one's family history is important to evaluate our risk for developing cancer, especially when one's family has multiple incidents of specific cancers. Having this family history can help to lower one's risk. Being vigilant and alerting your doctors will allow for specific testing to be done for early diagnosis of cancer. Improving one's nutritional intake and improving one's physical activity are also two ways individuals can reduce their risk for certain cancers, such as colon cancer. Now is the time to do whatever you can to lower your risk for this disease.

Family genetics play a role in developing cancer in many cases. There is little that can be done to avoid our genetics but being aware and vigilant are important to help ensure early detection which also increases the opportunity for successfully fighting this disease. Yes, early detection is one of our best tools to lower the chances for the cancer spreading throughout the body. Ensuring the correct screenings are done on a routine basis plays an important role in the journey to combat cancer. Since the improvements to the mammogram screenings, early detection of breast cancer has helped to raise the survivor rates into the 95 percentile.

Sadly, the implementation of a new law to provide five days of paid sick leave does nothing to really assist patients battling cancer. Many patients miss weeks of work for surgery, chemotherapy and or radiation treatments. While we find ways to help control the development of this disease, we also need to provide a system to assist patients and their families with the financial burden this disease causes.

How does a cancer patient continue to keep a job when they are off work for six weeks following surgery? Perhaps they are also unable to work while in chemo ? usually due to the side-effects such as daily nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Radiation is often prescribed five days per week and can be very debilitating. How do patients continue to pay a mortgage or rent, an electric or phone bill when they are not able to continue working? Surprising to most people, patients with cancer do not qualify for Social Security disability payments or welfare. Medical bills and the lack of income often result in large numbers of bankruptcy cases and even homelessness for many patients. This is still a huge problem that needs to be addressed by our legislators and the insurance industry.

-Anna Renault, avenewsanna@yahoo.com