Cancer Cells Found In Virtually Everyone By Age 70, With 'No Escaping Cancer'
CENTRAL OREGON COAST – Robert’s journey of life is coming to an end due to cancer that’s spreading throughout his body; meanwhile this “Baby Boomer” is not alone with cancer experts saying that by age 70, “virtually everyone” has cancer cells in their bodies “like a wild fire out of control.”
“By age 70, virtually everyone has cancer cells in their thyroid glands.” Autopsy studies show that “most old men have cancer cells in their prostates, and most women have malignant cells in their breasts, even if they’ve never been diagnosed with cancer,” states William Li, president of the Boston-based Angiogenesis Foundation, which funds research in cancer and other diseases. Li shared these finding in an Oct. 3 USA Today report that focused on October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In turn, “Oregon has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the country and we really don’t know why,” says Robert as memories came crowding back, like a hidden current along the central Oregon beach where he recently spread the ashes of his wife Debbie who passed away last month after a long fight with breast cancer.
Now Robert is wondering “when I will go,” as his mind flips through a mental atlas of his family “who all died from cancer.” Meanwhile, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation states that one in eight women in the U.S. will get breast cancer; with 40,000 women in U.S. dying each year from breast cancer.
Cancer hidden in most people, say experts
Other than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer in women. And, for Robert, who says “I’m dying from prostate cancer, “there is no place to run or hide from this disease that the Centers for Disease Control states is “still killing people around the globe each and every second second of the day.”
Moreover, USA Today points to new research “that men who develop breast cancer tend to have more advanced cases than women and to be diagnosed at an older age.”
“I was looked at for breast, prostate, liver and other cancers. Debbie and I had this plan that once we both retired, we’d take our RV down to visit with our son in New Mexico during the winter months and return to Oregon for the spring and summers. Cancer ended those dreams. Debbie now passed, and I’m looking at this cancer square in the eye, and it’s not good,” says Robert, age 64, who now walks the beach to help ease his worried mind.
In turn, an investigation into why cancer is still killing Americans on a massive scale, “scientists believe the body may be battling hidden cancers all the time. With 10 trillion cells in the human body, “we are all developing microscopic cancer cells continuously,” explains William Li, president of the Boston-based Angiogenesis Foundation that’s viewed as one of the leading national organizations that funds research in cancer. Li was interviewed for an Oct. 3 report that appeared in USA Today.
Li also points to autopsy studies that show that “most old men have cancer cells in their prostates, and most women have malignant cells in their breasts, even if they’ve never been diagnosed with cancer.”
Seniors fighting cancer in their retirement years
When Elmer Douglas Sheldon moved from Eugene to the nearby coastal resort of Newport he thought his twilight years would be pretty good.
Enter poor health and a senior’s worse nightmare – medical bills.
“I don’t have much left after they take this and that for my meds and the doctor bills,” quipped Sheldon at a local café where he treats himself to his daily “smoke and brew.”
Sheldon, 77, also shared that he has prostate cancer.
“With all the mess of medical tests and the co-pays, and driving here and there, I just don’t care to do it any longer. And, I won’t,” he asserts during a sip of his beer. While Sheldon has heard of President Obama’s health care proposal that would increase funding for his Medicare drug benefit, he’s not too happy about the costs.
“I worry a lot. My wife worries a lot. And, with my cancer there’s no real safety net for those of us who may need long-term medical care,” he said with tears in his eyes. According to a Medicare information web site, seniors once spent on average nearly $5,000 for drugs each year. For instance, that figure jumped to nearly $8,000 in 2011.
“We get our social security but we turn around and spend it on the gaps in Medicare that means more out-of-pocket expenses. It’s become more and more and heck, I just can’t afford it. I can’t afford this cancer and I can’t afford to live these days. How about that,” Sheldon said.
Cancer tumors hitting everyone in America, both rich and poor
Yes, there are some amazing things being done to fight cancer, but most cancer survivors – states the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation – will have to fight the cancer again when it usually returns within five years of recovery and kills you. While rich people think they can beat cancer with new cancer treatments, the recent death of billionaire Steve Jobs points to the inconvenient truth that cancer is still a clear and present danger to living one’s life.
“I hear by buddies say they’re going golfing or traveling, but God-bless them because I know this cancer can take anyone out at any time. I still see Debbie working in the garden, and I turn around and she’s gone. Cancer took her in just a matter of months,” explained Robert while discussing the disease during a recent walk along the Oregon beaches.
According to William Li in a recent USA Today interview, “cancer cells mask themselves to avoid being destroyed by the immune system’s killer cells. Second, tumors use the growth signals created during inflammation to feed themselves. The, tumor cells emit more inflammatory signals, helping them grown even larger, attracting their own blood supply, which acts like a highway to bring tumors the supplies they require to live. It’s a vicious cycle of growth. It’s like wild fire out of control.”
Cancer numbers frightening and killing millions
An Oct. 17 report on the website theweek.com featured research from the New York Times and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation that will shock most Americans who may think cancer won’t impact them.
The research for 2011 states:
-- $420 million: Amount generated by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation in the 2010 fiscal year.
-- 40,000: the number of women in the U.S. that breast cancer kills annually.
-- 7 percent of breast cancer patients in 1997 who opted to have a "preventive" mastectomy and have an unaffected breast removed, according to a study at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
-- 24 percent of breast cancer patients in 2005 who opted for the procedure, according to the same study. Other studies have also found similarly dramatic increases in the rate of "preventive" mastectomies. "There is an enormous climate of fear, whether that's from Breast Cancer Awareness Month or the news media the other 12 months of the year," says Monica Morrow, a breast cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. "The only thing you ever hear about breast cancer is about some woman who's dying because she didn't get treated in time."
-- 31 percent chance that women with breast cancer believe they have of developing a new tumor in the unaffected breast, according to a study in this month's Annals of Surgical Oncology.
Overall, experts also note that a “healthy lifestyle can’t eliminate the risk of cancer,” so people are encouraged to enjoy life now, adds cancer patient Robert, “because our days are numbered.”
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