Cancer: The facts

One in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer during our life.

The disease tends to affect older people - but can strike at any time.

Excluding certain skin cancers, there were more than 270,000 new cases of the disease in 2001 - and the rate is increasing by about 1% a year.

Some cancer, such as breast, are becoming more common, while new cases of lung cancer fall away due to the drop in the number of smokers.

However, while the overall number of new cancers is not falling, the good news is that successful treatment rates for many of the most common types are improving rapidly.

BBC News Online has produced, in conjunction with Cancer Research UK, a guide to some of the most common forms of cancer and the treatments used to tackle them. read more

Heart Disease & Stroke

INTRODUCTION

The UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world - one British adult dies from the disease every three minutes - and stroke is the country's third biggest killer, claiming 70,000 lives each year.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked, often by a blood clot, while strokes are caused either by blocked or burst blood vessels in the brain. A range of other conditions, including heart failure, when blood is not pumped properly around the body, and congenital heart defects can also cause long term problems, and even death, for sufferers.

HIV infections

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system, destroying or impairing their function. In the early stages of infection, the person has no symptoms. However, as the infection progresses, the immune system becomes weaker, and the person becomes more susceptible to so-called opportunistic infections.

The most advanced stage of HIV infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS; antiretroviral drugs can slow down the process even further.

HIV is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal), transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing of contaminated needles, and between a mother and her infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. read more

New research shows baseline CT screen helps detect early stage lung cancer in people at high risk because of asbestos exposure

A new study by Italian researchers published in the November issue of The Oncologist suggests that CT screening may help in early detection of lung cancer among people with a history of asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure increases the risk of developing lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs or abdomen. In a group of more than a 1,000 people exposed to asbestos, CT screening found non-calcified nodules in 44 percent of the participants. Chest X-ray detected such nodules in only 4 percent of the study participants. Researchers also found nine cases of early stage lung cancer through the use of CT screening. None of these cases were detected by chest X-ray. The tumors were surgically removed, which potentially cured these individuals before their tumors were even visible on chest X-ray. CT screening also gave 11 false positive results. The researchers concluded that baseline CT screening was beneficial for people with a history of asbestos exposure who are consequently at high risk for developing mesothelioma or lung cancer. They also concluded that additional research should be done to determine whether CT screening may assist in early detection of mesothelioma as well. read more