We Would All Eventually Develop Cancer If We Lived Long Enough Essay

We Would All Eventually Develop Cancer If We Lived Long Enough - Essay Example The other causes are genetic predisposition inherited from families and medical factors such as certain viruses linked to cancer including human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, hepatitis B and C and which cause liver cancer (7). Based on what cancer is and its causative agents, this paper tackles the questions of whether or not everybody will eventually get cancer at some point in their lives. With supportive evidence from scientific cancer studies, this paper takes a stance not everyone eventually gets cancer, including those who live long lives. Incidence rates for all types of cancers have increased for all age groups in Great Britain since the mid-1970s. However, the largest increase has been in the 75+ age bracket. The rise has been smaller in the other age groups with the 25-49 registering the smallest increases of 31% between 1975 and 1977 and 2009 and 2011. Although many factors cause cancer, people should not be misled that everyone will get cancer. Not everyone does. The interactions of factors of cancer make the basis of this discussion. The first factor is risky behaviour, by which people indulge in dangerous behaviours that predispose them to cancer or increase their cancer risks (6). These behaviours include smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol, bad or an unhealthy diet (10). In other words, people who take better care of themselves compared to their more careless counterparts are not likely to get cancer, regardless of how long they live since the type of lifestyle a person lives has real and far-reaching consequences on their propensity to get cancer. The table below shows the observed and projected lifetime risks of contracting or being diagnosed with all types of cancers in the UK. Paradoxically, whereas some people take good care of their lives really well and still get cancer others who seem not to care at all and never get cancer.