Aging could possibly be one factor for human being susceptible to cancer. In Australia, one in every two Australian men and one in every three Australian women are being diagnosed with cancer by the age 85. This statistic does not include skin cancer. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Australian are treated for these yearly.
In the last three decades the number of new cases of cancer diagnosed increased. In Australia, there are 47,445 new cases of diagnosed cancer during 1982 and 122,093 in 2012. It led others to conclude that the risk of being prone to cancer is higher in the modern society. Of course increase in the population also contributes to the statistical numbers.
However, the other major factors are the modern medicine that extends our lifespan. As we survive disease and live longer, we start to age and causing us to be more susceptible to cancer. For children and adults up to their forties cancer risk is quite low. However, the risk will increase as they age. The risk of having cancer is ten times higher in people 60 years than people under 60.
According to The Conversation, cancer is a disease caused by errors in our genes. These errors increase for a numerous reason. Chemical carcinogens and radiation are two factors that first comes to our minds. Cigarette smoking contributes to lung cancer and UV radiation contribute to melanoma are two obvious examples. Genetic error could also be inherited.
Another main reason for genetic errors, increasing is that it comes from normal biology. The body is made up of trillion genetic cells, as some of it dies, it is replaced by a new cell that came from a replicated cell. Even though most of the time the replication of all the DNA in a cell is successful considering the thousand times it is done, errors occur.
We all have errors in our genes, but it takes many errors in our genes for cancer to develop. According to the La Jolla Light, this year there will be 1.6 million Americans that will be diagnosed with cancer. In the modern society, we cannot prevent aging, but we can prevent to increase the risk as we age. We n prevent high risk susceptibility to cancer by avoiding chemical carcinogens like cigarette smoking, avoid over exposure to UV radiation, eat healthy foods and if possible participate in appropriate vaccination programs.
