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In all the publication, The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) summarise what we know about cancer from scientific research:

Cancer is largely preventable:

By stopping smoking, providing healthy food and avoiding the exposure to carcinogens.

The most frequent cancer types are curable by surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The chance of cure increases substantially if cancer is detected early.

Quality of life of cancer patients and their families can be greatly improved by the provision of palliative care.

Recommendations from the World Health Organisation concerning cancer include action in the following areas:

* eliminating exposure to cancer causes
* reducing individual susceptibility to the effects of these causes
* serving the greatest public health potential
* identifying the most cost-effective long-term cancer control
* tobacco control
* obesity control
* control of composition of the diet
* control of consumption of alcoholic beverages

Cancer control is a public health approach aimed at reducing causes and consequences of cancer by translating our knowledge into practice.

The prevention programmes from the World Health Organization sees cancer-prevention as part of integrated, national strategies. They identify the risk for cancers above are common to all non communicable diseases including heart, diabetes and respiratory problems.

All Prevention programmes for all chronic diseases are able to use the same surveillance and health promotion techniques. According to WHO recognised causes of cancer include:

* occupational and environmental exposure to a number of chemicals
* links between a number of infections and certain types of cancer
* parasitic infection schistosomiasis
* exposure to some forms of ionizing radiation
* excessive ultraviolet radiation

W.H.O. treatment priorities to day

Very important: Early detection improves chances of survival, but WHO stress 'only when linked to effective treatment'. The WHO wants to increase our awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer and help set up regular screening of apparently healthy individuals.

Very important: Accurate diagnosis of cancer is the first step to effective management. Care of cancer patients starts with recognition of some kind of abnormality in the body, followed by a visit to a health care facility for diagnosis. Once a diagnosis is confirmed then the disease is 'staged'. The patient might be referred to a specialist cancer treatment centre.

The Orthodox treatment for the cancer is likely to involve a mixture of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy and surgery. The primary objectives of cancer treatment are: cure, the prolongation of life and improvement of the quality of life.

Survival rates - the statistic datas

The Survival rates in standard treatments vary according to the variety of cancer.

- uterin corpus,breast,testis and melanoma produce a 5-year survival rate of 75%
- pancreas, liver, stomach and lung are generally less than 15 %

Because of the nature of cancer, many patients present themselves with advanced disease. The only realistic treatment for these patients is pain relief and palliative care. For insurance purposes, cancer is often regarded as incurable.