The results of a survey about patients' beliefs regarding the causes of cancer suggest that old cancer hypotheses die very hard.
It was carried out by experts at the University of Leicester and Leicester 's Hospitals and funded by the Leicestershire-based charity Hope Against Cancer, and researchers sought to learn if there was any cultural differences in the perception of cancer between two sets of people: British South Asian cancer patients, and British White cancer patients.
279 patients who had been diagnosed with cancer took part, and results were published in the journal Clinical Oncology. Here's what the researchers learned:
-- Both groups tended to believe pollution, stress, and injury were major causes of cancer (a full one quarter believed in the injury idea, which was first postulated over 50 years ago), despite there being no evidence for any of these as causes beyond possibly some pollution .
-- 20% believed that surgery was capable of causing a cancer to spread, again despite lacking all evidence.
-- Both groups saw religion as having a hand in cancer.
-- One-third believed alternative therapies were as effective as conventional medicine.
-- Pretty much everyone believed that smoking caused cancer.
-- Very few people saw the roles that obesity, diet, and not exercising played in cancer development.
-- A full 93 percent believed there was an advantage in early screening
-- Just one of ten British South Asians thought cancer was incurable, and less than 3 percent of the White group believed it was incurable.
The study is considered part of a broader examination into long-term ways of improving psychological support for cancer patients. Researchers concluded that while some of the major themes are getting through to the public, they need to do a much better job of disseminating helpful information and spreading awareness.
Source: Medical News Today.
