How Much Do You Know About Cancer?

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), there are more than 1.6 million new cases of cancer diagnosed annually in the United States.

The NCI estimates that 39.3 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime, based on data from 2015 to 2016.

Cancerous gene mutations can be either inherited at birth (also known as germ line mutations), or acquired through environmental factors, such as exposure to tobacco or the sun. Up to 10 percent of cancers are a result of an inherited mutation from a parent – usually a combination of inherited and acquired mutations cause cancer.

When cancer metastasizes, a process known as metastasis, it's spreading from the area it started to other places in the body, making it difficult to treat and control.

Affecting roughly 3.3 million people in the United States each year, nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, followed by breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer.

Glaucoma is an eye condition that can cause blindness, not a type of cancer. Carcinoma is cancer that forms in epithelial cells, lymphoma comes from white blood cells, melanoma begins in skin pigmentation cells, and sarcoma starts in bones and soft tissues in the body.

While all of these activities could lower your risk of developing cancer, tobacco usage is the leading cause of both cancer and cancer deaths, and has been linked to over a dozen forms of cancer.

To date, there have been no scientific studies published showing that aromatherapy with essential oils can prevent or treat cancer.

Chemotherapy can be administered orally, intravenously, and through injections into the muscle, skin, or fluid around the spinal cord or brain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette use is the number one risk factor for lung cancer, and is responsible for about 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer deaths.

While quite rare, men can still develop breast cancer. Men who carry genetic mutations associated with breast cancer are at a heightened risk for the disease.