• Question: What type of cancer requires the most attention from hospitals?

    Asked by Noraa to Ben, Lizzie, Francis, Max, Sian on 9 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Sian Richardson

      Sian Richardson answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      I think hospitals try to focus on all types but some types of cancer get more publicity therefore more funding on research. For example, over the last 20 years or so female breast cancer has had a big increase in the publicity of the disease and numbers of people dying from the disease have fallen due to increases in research, funding and screening. However the same can not be said regarding male prostate cancer, were the number of cases has remained the same.

    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 10 Mar 2018:

      We can look at this question in a few different ways.

      Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and so a lot of people get treated at hospital for it, however the treatment is less intense and the cancer develops very slowly, so it doesn’t require as much attention from the hospital.

      Other types of cancers come on very suddenly and are very deadly, such as forms of leukaemia. These require emergency treatment and a lot of very intense treatment, such as chemotherapy.

      Then there are also cancers such a brain tumours, which are very deadly but very hard to treat. People with these types of cancer often have to go to hospital a lot over a longer period of time and hospitals will often try experimental treatments on these patients.

      All cancers are serious and require treatment but they all vary in the degree of treatment needed and the time period of treatment required.

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