- The first recorded tumors in history occurred approximately in the year 2 thousand BC
- The increase in life expectancy and the current one that predominates among the population have led to an exponential increase in cases of neoplasms.
- Cancer surgery becomes more effective in the early stages because it prevents abnormal cells from spreading to other organs.
Cancer is a public health problem that is on the rise. Only during 2021 it caused almost 10 million deaths globally. For its prevention, it is enough to make small changes in lifestyle, but it is also necessary to think about people who already have a tumor. For the second case there is Oncologic surgery as an alternative to face the disease.
A problem almost as old as humanity
Sometimes it is thought that tumors are a recent problem, although in reality this is not the case. A work carried out by a team of anthropologists from the University of Granada (UGr), located in Spain, identified two mummies from the Pharaonic era that lived approximately in the year 2 thousand BC. When analyzing them, they detected that they died from breast cancer. It is estimated that the affected women were between 35 and 40 years of age at the time of death.
In this case, to carry out the analysis, the researchers used computed tomography, a technique considered one of the most modern and which allows obtaining precise results. In this sense, it was announced that a state-of-the-art scanner was used that is capable of performing 124 simultaneous tomographic cuts.
Exponential increase in cancer cases
Now, the exponential increase in cancer cases in the world happened during the last decades has two main reasons. The first is the increase in life expectancy because now people are living longer. While the second is related to the current lifestyle.
It is true that there are some cases of hereditary tumors but it is a minimum figure of less than five percent. The rest are generated by various causes, although most can be avoided. Some of the main ones are obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking and alcoholism.
On the other hand, if a person has already developed some type of cancer, then now the important thing is to offer a treatment that is useful for dealing with the disease. Many times it is thought that only chemotherapy exists, although in reality this is not the case because there are more options.
What types of cases does cancer surgery work for?
According to Dr. Martin Granados Garcia, who is a head and neck oncologist surgeon from the National Cancer Institute (INCan), not all types of tumors are the same. Although he assured that many cases can be treated with surgery to eliminate malignant lesions.
In this sense, the most important thing is to achieve early detection to identify the disease from its early stages. The more timely the diagnosis, there will always be more paths to choose from.
“Oncological surgery plays a crucial role in saving thousands of lives because up to 80% of people living with cancer, no matter what stage of the condition they are in, will require some surgical procedure.”
For his part, he Dr. Luis Enrique Soto, who is a surgical oncologist at the Central Military Hospital, added that surgery is a positive treatment option for many types of cancer and can be curative or palliative, depending on the stage of the tumor and the general health of the patient; however, if it is detected early, intervention can be essential to guarantee a better future for people.
Now, according to the Dr. Roberto Rodríguez García, who is a surgical oncologist at Hospital Ángeles San Luis Potosí, oncological surgery becomes more effective in the early stages because it prevents abnormal cells from spreading to other organs. When it is an advanced stage, it can be combined with other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy to achieve better results.
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