Cancer is not just the disease of our age, as it is thought. Traces of cancer have been found in dinosaur fossils. In the Edwin Smith papyri of 3000 BC found in Egypt, it is mentioned that the breasts of eight breast cancer patients were cauterized with fire to heal them (figure 1). Thanks to scientific medicine applications, human lifespan is prolonged (figure 2). Mortality rates of cancer patients are decreasing (Figure 3). Increasing population, living longer, increases the number of people who get cancer. The fact that previously undiagnosed cases are now diagnosed increases this number even more. Then, as cancer patients begin to live longer, it increases the number of people living with cancer around us. Judging by the glass half full, what I just said is all good news. However, the increase in the number of people living with cancer may be triggering the fear of cancer. The health sector, newspaper articles and the efforts of alternative medicine may be triggering this fear.
Today, no one panics because the number of people living with diabetes is this many millions, the number of people living with high blood pressure is this many millions, “hypertension has resurfaced”. I observe that cancer patients often fall into the trap of charlatans, confirming the saying “who falls into the sea, hugs the snake”.
