The Full Story

Let's dive deeper into these cancer myths:

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1. Family History and Risk: While some cancers can be hereditary, most are due to aging and exposures like smoking or lifestyle habits. Even if no one in your family has had cancer, it doesn't mean you're risk-free.

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2. "Superfoods" and Cancer Prevention: While healthy foods are good for you, there's no magic food that can single-handedly prevent cancer. Eating a balanced diet is important for overall health, but it's not a guaranteed defense against cancer.

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3. Deodorants and Breast Cancer: There's no scientific evidence linking deodorants to breast cancer. This myth lacks a factual basis.

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4. Cloudy Days and Skin Damage: Clouds don't fully shield your skin from the sun's harmful UV rays. Protecting your skin, even on cloudy days, is essential.

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5. Sugar's Effect on Cancer: While cutting down on sugar is advisable for overall health, there's no direct evidence that eliminating sugar from your diet can shrink or cure cancer.

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6. Second-hand Smoke: Second-hand smoke contains harmful chemicals that can cause cancer, particularly for non-smokers and children. It's a serious health risk.

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7. Smoking and Types of Cancer: Smoking doesn't just lead to lung cancer; it's linked to various other cancers and health issues, affecting multiple organs.

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8. Symptoms and Cancer Detection: Sometimes, cancer shows no symptoms in its early stages. Regular health check-ups are crucial for early detection.

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9. Breast Cancer in Men: Although less common, men can also get breast cancer. Regular self-checks are vital for both men and women.

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10. Cancer has a sweet tooth: Another idea we see a lot is that sugar apparently ‘feeds cancer cells’, suggesting that it should be completely banished from a patient’s diet. This is an unhelpful oversimplification of a highly complex area that we’re only just starting to understand. ‘Sugar’ refers to a range of molecules including simple sugars found in plants, glucose and fructose. The white stuff in the bowl on your table is called sucrose and is made from glucose and fructose stuck together. All sugars are carbohydrates, commonly known as carbs – molecules made from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Carbs – whether from cake or a carrot – get broken down in our digestive system to release glucose and fructose. These get absorbed into the bloodstream to provide energy for us to live. All our cells, cancerous or not, use glucose for energy. Because cancer cells are usually growing very fast compared with healthy cells, they have a particularly high demand for this fuel. While it’s very sensible to limit sugary foods as part of an overall healthy diet and to avoid putting on weight, that’s a far cry from saying that sugary foods specifically feed cancer cells.

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11. Phones and Cancer Risk: While studies have looked into phone use and its potential risks, conclusive evidence linking mobile phones to cancer hasn't been established. It's advisable to use hands-free options and limit phone use, but don't overly stress about this possibility.

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12. Cancer is a man-made, modern disease: Cancer has existed as long as humans have. It was described thousands of years ago by Egyptian and Greek physicians, and researchers have discovered tell-tale signs of cancer in a 3,000-year-old skeleton. While it’s certainly true that global lifestyle-related diseases like cancer are on the rise, the biggest risk factor for cancer is age. The simple fact is that more people are living long enough to develop cancer because of our success in tackling infectious diseases and other historical causes of death such as malnutrition. It’s perfectly normal for DNA damage in our cells to build up as we age, and such damage can lead to cancer developing.

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13. My lump is not painful, so it cannot be cancer: The vast majority of malignant lumps (cancerous) are painless. Unfortunately, by the time you feel pain, it is usually a sign that the cancer is already at an advanced stage. Pain arise when the cancer destroyed some other organ or a tumour is pressing onto or eroding into the nerves.  Here are some important signs to look out for in evaluating or monitoring a lump.

• Increasing size

• Change in character

• Change in colour

• Increase in warmth

• Deep location

• Development of pain

• Multiple lumps forming

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14. My tumour marker blood tests are normal, so I cannot have cancer: There are at the moment, no tumour marker blood tests to detect cancer in exact. The current executive health screen tumour marker tests are actually very limited in their scope of what they can check for.

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15. Advances in technology mean we should have cured cancer by now: Cancer is a complicated disease that mutates healthy human cells. The word cancer is used to describe over 100 related diseases which often have different properties. Additionally, the cells continue to mutate over the course of the disease, making it harder to study. Major advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, but there is still much to learn. Hence, the world is still constantly doing research and development for new options with better control.

Remember, staying well-informed, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and seeking advice from healthcare professionals are the best approaches to understanding and managing cancer risks.

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Cancer Myths information source:

Cancer Research UK

National Cancer Institute

Hong Kong Cancer Fund
UK Independent News

Parkway Cancer Centre