Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Don't ignore cancer symptoms

Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Dec, 2014 10:36 AM
    Perhaps driven by fear, people often prefer to dismissing potential warning signs of cancer, thereby putting their lives at risk, says a study.
     
    In the study involving 1,700 people, more than half (53 percent) said they had experienced at least one red-flag cancer 'alarm' symptom during the previous three months, but only two percent of them thought that cancer was a possible cause, the findings showed.
     
    The results showed that people rarely attributed potential signs of cancer to the disease, putting them down to other reasons instead, such as age, infection, arthritis, piles and cysts.
     
    "Most people with potential warning symptoms don't have cancer, but some will and others may have other diseases that would benefit from early attention,” said lead study author Katriina Whitaker, senior research fellow at University College London.
     
    “That is why it is important that these symptoms are checked out, especially if they do not go away. But people could delay seeing a doctor if they do not acknowledge cancer as a possible cause,” Whitaker added.
     
    The researchers found that even the more obvious warning symptoms, such as unexplained lumps or changes to the appearance of a mole, were rarely attributed to cancer, although they are often well recognised in surveys that assess the public's knowledge of the disease.
     
    "Most cancers are picked up through people going to their doctors about symptoms. This study indicates that opportunities for early diagnosis are being missed,” said Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK.
     
    The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.

    MORE Health ARTICLES

    Unravelling the process of going to sleep

    Unravelling the process of going to sleep
    Sleeping is a gradual process and researchers have now developed a method to estimate the dynamic changes in brain activity and behaviour during the transition from wakefulness to sleep....

    Unravelling the process of going to sleep

    Male hormone does not hamper women's libido

    Male hormone does not hamper women's libido
      Failed relationships and emotional health threaten menopausal women's interest in sex more than levels of the male hormone testosterone and other...

    Male hormone does not hamper women's libido

    Now, ultrasound can penetrate bones, metals

    Now, ultrasound can penetrate bones, metals
    Materials like bones and metals, called aberrating layers, have physical characteristics that block or distort ultrasound's acoustic waves. ...

    Now, ultrasound can penetrate bones, metals

    South Asian Boys More Likely To Be Overweight

    South Asian Boys More Likely To Be Overweight
    South Asian boys are three times as likely to be overweight compared to their peers, says a Canada-based study led by an Indian-origin researcher.

    South Asian Boys More Likely To Be Overweight

    Women bosses more prone to depression

    Women bosses more prone to depression
    Job authority increases symptoms of depression among women but decreases them among men, a study from University of Texas at Austin finds....

    Women bosses more prone to depression

    How stem cells can speed up cardiac repair

    How stem cells can speed up cardiac repair
    Delivering stem cells directly into damaged heart muscle after a heart attack may help repair and regenerate injured tissue, according to a study.....

    How stem cells can speed up cardiac repair