Every day almost 800 cases of cancer in Spain. 90% of cancers affect people over 50 years of age and half of all cases occur in people over 75 years of age.
In any case, there are cancers that are more typical of some age segments than others. The newspaper The Sun collects in a report which are the most typical cancers according to the years, with the opinion of Neil Bayman Executive Medical Director, Christie Cancer Hospital, Withington, Greater Manchester, UK.
Under 18 years of age: leukemia
This blood cancer represents one third of cases in children under 14 years of age. Survival rates have doubled to 69% five years after diagnosis.
- Risk factor’s: Some cases are believed to be caused by viral infections.
- Symptoms: pale skin, swollen lymph nodes, mysterious bruising or bleeding.
- Treatment: Bone marrow and stem cell transplants.
From the age of 20: skin cancer
While melanoma skin cancers are more common in older people, they represent the 43% of cancers in women little more than twenty years old and 18% in men.
- Risk factor’s: Some of us are genetically more susceptible to environmental causes, and ultraviolet light from the sun or lamps is the most common.
- Symptoms: a new and abnormal mole, one that changes or grows, a change in an area of ​​skin.
- Treatment: Surgery is very successful if the cancer is detected early. Immunotherapy is used for advanced melanoma.
After 30: brain tumors
Brain and spine tumors represent the 12% of cancers among men thirty years old and 13% of women.
- Risk factor’s: radiation exposure and genetics.
- Symptoms: Headaches, nausea, tiredness, vision problems, behavioral changes.
- Treatment: Proton beam therapy provides a longer, better quality of life with fewer side effects. It targets a tumor very precisely, thereby reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissues and organs.
From 40: colon
Eight out of ten bowel cancer patients survive a year or more. If goods more common in people over 60 years of age, It remains one of the most common cancers in people ages 25 to 49, especially in men.
- Risk factor’s: Lifestyle, including too much red and processed meat.
- Symptoms: blood in stool, change in bowel habit.
- Treatment: If detected early, surgery with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy is performed.
From 50 and 60: breast and prostate
Breast cancer represents a third of cancers in women of this age.
- Risk factor’s: Age, weight and alcohol consumption.
- Symptoms: A new lump or change in the shape or feel of the skin.
- Treatment: If detected early, surgery is key, in addition to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
One in six men suffers from cancer prostatea risk that increases with age.
- Risk factor’s: Obesity and ethnicity.
- Symptoms: Need to urinate more or difficulty emptying the bladder.
- Treatment: Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, hormonal therapy.
From the 70s and 80s: lung
Lung cancer is one of the causes of death more frequent and cause more deaths in old ageand represents 16% of cases in both men and women.
- Risk factor’s: Strongly linked to smoking, but one in ten patients are non-smokers. Living in disadvantaged areas with poor housing and air pollution is a risk.
- Symptoms: Cough lasting more than three weeks, coughing up blood, and shoulder pain.
- Treatment: If detected early, surgery or radiation therapy can be curative.
