Despite global efforts and billions of dollars poured into research around the world, cancer continues to take a heavy toll. The medical fraternity has yet to arrive at its exact cause and a firm line of treatment which can assure full recovery.

At present, tobacco smoking and chewing, pesticide-treated agricultural and dairy products, intake of alcohol, background radiation, chemical pollution and related environmental conditions, viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, genetic proclivity, and others have been broadly identified as possible causative factors.

The symptoms are many, and can be seen as direct or indirect signs of cancer. It could be a growing lump on the surface of the body, a change in the color of the skin or mucus membrane, constipation, vomiting, a sore that doesn't heal, or persistent cough and hoarseness. Deep seated tumors can take time to show symptoms. They could be inferred from blood in the stools or urine, pain in the affected part, difficulty in swallowing etc. The onset of cancer could lead to onset of difficulties in the normal functioning of any or all of the affected organs.

Treatment of cancer could be by way of surgery to remove a tumor and give relief, chemotherapy carried out by the use of drugs that destroy cancer cells, radiation therapy which involves using high energy radiation to destroy or shrink tumors, biologic therapy through which the immune system of the body is stimulated to fight cancer cells, or by way of hormonal therapy whereby the hormone levels in the body are altered so as to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells.

The world-wide fight against cancer has certainly brought in good results. Despite the heavy toll that the disease continues to take, the chances of survival and total recovery of many patients have gone up remarkably. It is seen that when the 5-year survival chance of breast cancer patients in 1975 was just 52 per cent, it moved up to 77.5 per cent in 1999. And among children who suffered from childhood leukaemia, the percentage of survivors has gone up to 76 compared to a negligible number in the 1970s. The fight against cancer is continuing with more new drugs and treatment methodologies and technologies coming up. At this pace, there is every hope of cancer being relegated in the next ten years to the state of a common disease amenable to treatment and complete cure in the normal course.