What are carcinogens? What are the different types of carcinogens? Also, mention the different methods of treatment of cancer?
Carcinogens are the substances that cause cancer. These substances may be chemical or physical things like: - 1. Smoking 2. Tobacco chewing 3. Radiations e.g., UV- x-ray, cosmic rays. 4. Chemical agents.g., mustard gas, aflatoxin, cadmium oxide 5. Biological agents e.g., retroviruses 6. Cellular agents proto-oncogenes which when activated under certain conditions may lead to oncogenic transformation of cells Treatment of cancer involves: - 1. Surgery: - surgical removal of the tumor. 2. Chemotherapy: treatment with drugs that can destroy cancer cells. 3. Immunotherapy: interleukin, use of interferons, vaccines to generate non-specific defense mechanism. 4. Radiation Therapy: - therapy like x-ray or radiotherapy and the utilization of ionizing radiations that help to kill cancer cells. 5. Hormonal Suppression: providing or blocking certain hormones.
