Articles
Cancer treatment myths: Any truth to these common beliefs?
Myth: Drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are blocking or withholding new cancer treatments
Myth: Everyone with the same kind of cancer gets the same kind of treatment
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Myth: A positive attitude is all you need to beat cancer
Myth: If we can put a man on the moon, we should have cured cancer by now
Myth: Drug companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are blocking or withholding new cancer treatments
Myth: Regular checkups and today's medical technology can detect all cancer early
Myth: Undergoing cancer treatment means you can't live at home, work or go about your usual activities
Myth: Cancer is always painful
Myth: A needle biopsy can disturb cancer cells, causing them to travel to other parts of the body
Myth: Surgery causes cancer to spread
Myth: Everyone who has the same kind of cancer gets the same kind of treatment
Myth: Everyone who has cancer has to have treatment
Myth: If we can put a man on the moon, we should have cured cancer by now
Truth: Finding the cure for cancer is proving to be more complex than mastering the engineering and physics required for spaceflight.
Cancer actually includes a large group of diseases. Each person's cancer may have many different causes. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, doctors still have much to learn about what triggers a cell to become cancerous and why some people who have cancer do better than others.
In addition, cancer is a moving target. Cancer cells may continue to mutate and change during the course of the disease. This may lead to the cancer cells no longer responding to the chemotherapy drugs or radiation treatments that were given initially.
