New Delhi | Jagran Lifestyle Desk: Cancer is one of the most potentially fatal diseases and one out of six people lose their lives globally because of the same every year. Therefore, on World Cancer Day 2021, which is observed every February 4 to create awareness for the life-threatening disease, we bring you some important information about cancer. While speaking exclusively with Jagran English cancer expert Dr Manish Singhal shed some light on the common myths and facts about this chronic disease.
Myth: Chemotherapy usually has bad side effects
Fact: This is basically true, Chemotherapy may have these side effects in patients including, hair fall, darkening of the skin, watery eyes, oral blisters, vomiting and feeling of nausea, change of taste in the mouth, chances of lung damage (rarely), chances of heart damage (rarely), diarrhea, body aches, muscle aches and more.
Myth: Chemotherapy is painful
Fact: Not exactly, because pain is said in a very figurative sense, not literally. However, chemotherapy is distressing as your body goes through a lot of changes like nausea and the other above mentioned side effects. It is not exactly painful to vomit, but yes distressful. Other effects of chemotherapy that can make cancer patients feel distressed can be lack of taste (temporary), not feeling like eating anything due to bad taste, fatigue.
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Myth: Hair will never grow back after chemotherapy
Fact: That’s incorrect. Mostly hair will regrow. Sometimes we see that patients have developed denser hair than they used to have before undergoing chemotherapy.
Myth: A lump in your breast is always breast cancer
Fact: It is actually the other way round. Lump in the breast is 90% of the time non-cancerous while 10% of the time it can be cancerous.
Myth: Pregnant women can’t get cancer treatments
Fact: Pregnant women can get cancer treatments. However, there are risks involved in it mainly for the child than the mother. Usually, the first trimester is avoided for treatments, but in the second and the third trimester, one can undergo chemotherapy. This is because the maximum organ development of a child has already happened in the first trimester.
Myth: Cancer will always bounce back
Fact: That’s again incorrect. The rate of cure may vary depending on the stage of the patient and cancer type. In stage 1 usually, the cure rate for cancer is 80 to 90%, in stage 2 it lowers down to 60 to 80% and in stage 3 it slides down to 60 to 30%. While talking about stage 4, a few cancers can be cured. Especially with immunotherapy, about 20% of patients can be cured with late-stage cancer in some types such as lung cancer, kidney cancer, urinary bladder cancer, and even colon cancer. But in case of bounce-back many patients may develop new types of cancers as well.
Posted By: Sanyukta Baijal
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