Probably one of the most unusual roles for Sean Connery was his portrayal of a doctor in a South American jungle, looking into a way to eradicate cancer. Although there are other more awful diseases, this one holds the crown at the moment because of how often it is diagnosed. Research over the years has helped our understanding of cancer but not to the point where we are able to foretell exactly when it will happen.



Even now many people do not really understand what cancer is despite growing up with it all around them. This is a disease where unhealthy cells grow, divide and then expand into other cells, often transferring to parts of the body using a method called metastasis.

There are rare occasions when a benign tumor changes to a malignant one. It causes more deaths per population than any other illness, a staggering thirteen percent and the older you get the more prone you are to contracting the disease. While smoking, chemicals and radiation for instance, can be the cancer trigger, it is the poison from these or other sources that transform body cells and create genetic abnormalities which grow and multiply.

A genetic trait may be inherited and thus present in all cells from birth. It is still not fully understood why one person will contract the disease and another be free from it but it is believed that the interactions between any carcinogens and each person's particular DNA is complicated.

Research into the cause of cancer continues around the globe and is the disease most frequently studied on a regular basis. We are always learning more about diseases and how they affect our bodies and minds. By understanding the origins of cancer, perhaps we will be able to avoid contracting it until we come up with a cure.

There is a saying 'You Are What You Eat' and this is now being looked at more closely as food may have a direct effect on the incidence of the disease in certain groups. Studies have shown that there is a connection between dairy produced calcium and prostrate cancer.

No-one is immune from cancer. It can affect anyone at some time in a person's life. Sometimes the disease is only picked up through routine screening. All this research is gradually leading towards more effective treatments for cancer and it is not always the terminal disease it used to be.