preview

The Psychology Of Cancer And Cancer

Better Essays

In this essay I will be discussing the psychology of cancer. More than 270,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK. Cancer is the cause of a quarter of all UK deaths, and well over a third of all deaths in adults under 65 (Cancer Research UK, 2004). It is a deadly illness, in 2012, an estimated 14.1 million new cases of cancer occurred worldwide and an estimated 8.2 million people died from cancer. Around 12,500 cancers in the UK each year are linked to alcohol with smoking causing nearly a fifth of all cancers (including over 80% of lung cancers) (Anon., 2014). Genes are a risk factor in an individual’s risk of getting the illness, however there are further lifestyle risk factors. Tobacco is by far, the single most important risk factor for cancer. Worldwide, it caused more than 1 in 5 cancer deaths and almost three-quarters of lung cancer deaths (Cancer Research UK, 2014).
Cancer is not a single disease with a single cause and a single type of treatment. There are more than 200 different types of cancer, each with its own name and treatment. Cancer is the general name for a group of more than 100 diseases and is due to abnormal cell growth.
Cells become abnormal if their DNA - and therefore their "knowledge" - becomes damaged. As long as there are very few abnormal cells and they are kept under control by our immune system, they will not be harmful to the person. It is only when these cells start to divide uncontrollably, forming lumps or

Get Access