Maybe you’ve heard that drinking too much coffee causes cancer but a daily cup of green tea lowers your risk. Or perhaps you’ve read that surgery can make an early-stage cancer more severe. There’s no shortage of myths, though it is worth noting that each form of cancer has its nuances.
Misinformation runs rampant, and here’s what two experts hear the most often and said should be debunked.
1. Caffeine causes cancer – some believe that in coffee, carcinogens are formed during the roasting process
2. Air exposure makes tumors spread – before CT scan, doctors would attempt to remove a mass, only to discover during surgery cancer had already spread throughout the body
3. Lung cancer is always caused by smoking
I – Word Understanding
Myths – false belief or idea
Nuances – slight differences
Rampant – common / widely spread
Debunked – to be proven wrong
II – Have Your Say
1. Are you a coffee person or a tea person? What kind of things are you worried about when it comes to cancer risk?
2. How do you feel about surgery? In Genetic testing for cancer is already possible and some people with cancer risk already take surgery even before cancer symptoms show. Would you do the same thing?
3. Roughly one-fifth of Americans who die from lung cancer have never smoked or used tobacco. Are you aware of other factors that cause lung cancer?
