Is cancer contagious? Do mobile phones cause cancer? Does eating sugar make cancer worse? Based on the latest research, the answer to all of these questions is no. But according to the National Cancer Institute in the US, they are among the most common myths associated with cancer. With one in two of us in the UK likely to experience a form of the disease at some point in our lifetimes, it is understandable that certain fallacies can take hold within popular culture.
However, such mistaken beliefs can impact the public perception of cancer for the worse, and in some cases even prevent patients from seeking the most recommended courses of treatment. Here are seven of the most common public misconceptions that experts at Worldwide Cancer Research – a charity based in Edinburgh – have encountered.
1 Breakthroughs are rare
The pace of progress in cancer treatment is accelerating all the time. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there were 332 new cancer drugs approved by US regulators between 2009 and 2020, many of which were subsequently approved by European authorities as well. “Breakthroughs are happening all the time,” says Dr Lynn Turner, director of research at Worldwide Cancer Research. “We fund discovery research, which is that first step in the journey. Without those early breakthroughs, you won’t get that later rollout into clinics and to patients.”
The rise of such treatments has had a noticeable improvement on life expectancy. One of the biggest examples of this is in breast cancer. Earlier this year, a study of more than half a million women showed that the number of people who die of a breast cancer diagnosis has decreased by two-thirds since the 1990s.
2 There will be a magic bullet cure for all cancers
We talk about cancer as a single entity and yet there are more than 200 different types of cancer, with a wide range of characteristics. Some tumours can grow extremely slowly while others progress rapidly and spread to other parts of the body, a process known as metastasis. “Each cancer behaves in a different way and, therefore, treatments have to be different,” says Turner.
Patients with a particular type of cancer can also display a broad spectrum of responses to the same drug, with some responding strongly and others less so. As a result, rather than a single magic bullet, cancer treatment is moving more in the direction of personalised medicine. With the rise of therapies such as CAR T-cell immunotherapy and perhaps cancer vaccines in the coming years, more patients will have their genome sequenced along with other forms of testing, before being prescribed a drug tailored to their own cancer.
3 Cancer is a new disease
There is evidence that humans and our hominid relatives have been afflicted by cancer for at least 1.7m years. In 2016, archaeologists in South Africa discovered the skeleton of an early human with a malignant tumour in the left toe bone.
Turner says that the reason why cancer may seem to be more prevalent now compared with centuries ago is simply because people are living longer. “It’s not a new disease,” she says. “The longer we live, the more you’re going to see people getting cancer because basically it’s healthy cells becoming faulty and not behaving correctly, and the longer we live, the more chance there is for that to happen.”
4 Alternative therapies can cure cancer
From homeopathy to acupuncture, CBD oil and even apricot kernels, cancer patients will be exposed to all kinds of alternative therapies and claims when researching their condition.
However, there is no scientific proof that any alternatives to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy can either slow cancer growth or cure the disease. In fact, research in the US has found that patients who try alternative therapies are more likely to die than those who opt for recommended treatment.
“There’s no evidence that things like homeopathy work, unfortunately,” says Turner. “But there’s often a confusion between alternative and complementary therapies. Things like exercising, meditation, reducing stress and just being fit and healthy can really help with recovery, alongside normal treatment.”
5 A healthy lifestyle can completely prevent cancer
While living a healthy lifestyle by quitting smoking, cutting down on alcohol, processed meat and other ultra-processed foods, and boosting fibre intake can certainly reduce your risk of getting cancer, it’s not a sure-fire thing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that somewhere between 30% and 50% of all cancer cases are preventable. Cancer ultimately arises from mutations or mistakes that occur when our cells replicate and divide, which can be directly influenced by harmful chemicals we breathe in or accumulate through our diet, or can be down to genetics.
6 Non-smokers can’t get cancer
While smoking is the dominant cause of lung cancer – it causes seven out of every 10 cases of the disease – this does not mean that non-smokers are completely safe.
Epidemiological studies have also identified other risk factors such as genetics, and exposure to air pollution and carcinogenic chemicals such as asbestos and radon. According to the WHO, it has been estimated that radon causes between 3% and 14% of all lung cancers, particularly if indoor levels of the gas accumulate at high concentrations.
7 Some cancers are better to get
A glance at cancer survival rates may make it seem that it would be preferable to be diagnosed with melanoma rather than pancreatic cancer, for instance, but Turner feels this is a flawed way of thinking about the disease. This is because a patient’s prognosis depends heavily on what stage their particular cancer is diagnosed at and how aggressive it proves to be, rather than the location.
For example, while five-year survival rates of stage one melanoma are close to 100%, that drops to 29.8% for stage four melanoma, according to some studies.
Very often, the reason people do not survive cancer is because it spreads beyond the original site in the body to other organs or tissues, making it much harder to treat. Turner points out that there is a need to improve our understanding of why certain tumours are prone to spreading and why cancer can still return, even though a patient has gone into remission. “Unfortunately with a lot of cancers, even though your treatment goes well, it can come back, and more research needs to be done into why that happens for some people and not others,” she says.
Find out more about the search for new cures being funded by Worldwide Cancer Research and how you can support the charity’s work