Question: What is the most interesting thing you have found out about cancer

Steven Brown answered on 12 Jun 2017:

Part of my job involves sitting in on hospital clinic visits, where patients meet with clinicians to discuss their treatment and make decisions about what options they have, based on how bad their symptoms are, their progress, etc. For the most part, everyone – and I mean everyone, the patients and the clinicians – laugh and chat like they were at a party, planning their next holiday, etc. For the most part now, cancer is considered a chronic illness – something that you live with over a long period of time. It’s not necessarily something that will kill you, as it used to be. There are exceptions – cancer of the pancreas is really bad one, with very little hope for success in treatment. But for the most part, people come to terms with the diagnosis, and make adjustments to their life to accommodate being tired, feeling sick, or whatever it is. Cancer is not as scary as it used to be, and I did not know this until I took on this job.

Another interesting thing I found out recently is that though most cancers affect people from poorer areas (think about how diet impacts on health for instance), melanoma or skin cancer typically occurs in wealthier people. Probably as they can afford to go on more holidays abroad and do not protect their skin in the sun. Learning all of this sort of stuff reminds you that getting cancer as a lot to do with the choices you make, and so you can minimise the chance of getting cancer by making better choices. Not smoking is one of the smartest things you can do. Even quitting before you are 40 reduces the increased risk of cancer etc. Your body is amazing.