When it comes to cancer, everyone often talks about it.
Even with the rapid development of medicine, it does not mean that all cancers can be cured, and it does not mean that all cancer patients can be cured.
In itself, cancer is caused by the abnormal growth of tumor cells, and has biological characteristics such as easy to lose control, permeability, and metastasis.
The occurrence of cancer is a multi-level and multi-step complex process, which is closely related to occupation, environmental pollution, living habits, and genetic factors.
There are more than 100 kinds of cancers found clinically, and most of them have poor prognosis, such as skin cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma cancer, etc.
Because of this complexity, people also have some misunderstandings about cancer.
Is cancer contagious?
This is a seemingly simple, but not so simple question.
There are two main types of so-called cancer contagion—the spread of cancer cells themselves from one patient to another; and contamination by viruses or bacteria that cause cancer.
But the general consensus among modern scientists is that —-Cancer cells are not contagious from person to person.
Cancer is not an infectious disease, but a malignant tumor originating from epithelial tissue. will infect others.
There are two main points—
First, cancer cells are actually very fragile
Different from what we think, cancer cells Once the cells leave their original internal environment, the spread of the virus will be greatly weakened due to external environmental factors, and a small mistake may be fatal.
Second, the human body has a strong immune system
For “foreign aggressors”, the human immune system plays a strong enough role to instantly identify and Remove foreign harm to human cells.
After 300 years of research, no cases of direct infection of human cancer cells have been found so far.
Cancer is not contagious, but carcinogens can infect others
It should be noted that although cancer is not contagious, carcinogens may be transmitted to others. Which “carcinogenic” factors may be transmitted to others?
1. Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus
Most liver cancer patients are infected with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. If controlled in time, it may develop into chronic hepatitis B, liver cirrhosis and other diseases, and even into liver cancer in severe cases.
Under normal circumstances, cross-infection will not occur when living with hepatitis B, hepatitis C patients or virus carriers, but hepatitis virus can be transmitted through mother-to-child transmission, iatrogenic infection, blood transfusion, sexual Transmission and other means to others.
2. Helicobacter pylori
Stomach cancer It will not infect others, but its pathogenic bacteria Helicobacter pylori is contagious to a certain extent and can be parasitic in the gastric mucosa of human body.
If you share utensils with carriers of Helicobacter pylori, you may be infected with the bacteria, which increases your risk of developing stomach cancer.
Therefore, it is best to use public chopsticks when dining out to avoid cross-infection. If there are Helicobacter pylori carriers at home, their personal items should also be used separately from family members.
3.EB virus
Almost all of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are infected with EB virus.
If EB virus is latent in the body and repeatedly infected, it may become cancerous, and EB virus can be transmitted by mouth, such as kissing, mouth feeding, etc.
4. HPV virus
Studies show , 65% to 75% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV16 and 18 subtypes. HPV virus can cause repeated inflammation of the cervix, tumor lesions, and then cervical cancer.
This kind of love poison is mostly spread through sexual life, so both men and women can be infected. If men are infected with the HPV virus, they may develop condyloma acuminatum, warts and other symptoms.
Girls’ infection will greatly increase the risk of cervical cancer, so it is best for women to have regular obstetric examinations, and timely vaccinate against HPV.
Of course, the above-mentioned situations are actually close to “cancer infection”, which is not the same as infection in the traditional sense.
The most important thing for us is that once a problem is found, it needs to be actively prevented and prevented, so as to prevent these lesions from turning into cancer and so on.
