Cancer and the environment

Cancer and the Environment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Cancer and the Environment
In the era of globalized health care, the debate on whether environment exposure plays any role in the developing risks of cancer has attracted the attention of scholars, scientists, clinicians, and even households. Much research seems to focus specific ways through which the environment influences the development of cancer by type and severity (Rodgers, Udesky, Rudel, & Brody, 2018). While cancer is a disease with multiple risk factors, including both genetic and environmental risks factors, the environment is found to alter genetic mapping, increasing susceptibility to cancer. Studies have revealed that based on different types of cancer, some may even take more than forty years to develop after exposure to harmful substances. This paper will discuss the relationship between environmental exposures and risks of developing cancer.
Through surveillance and tracking, research has demonstrated a relationship between different types of cancer and certain environmental pollutants (Nickels, Truong, Hein, Stevens, Buck, Behrens, & Gaudet, 2013). While the relationship does not rule out other factors, it does not highlight any environmental factors that increase the risk for some cancers. Studies further reveal that the causes of some cancers are unknown and are likely to be determined by several factors at different points in one’s lifetime. Excessive tobacco use, physical inactivity, obesity and exposure to ultraviolet light have been cited the major risk factors for cancer (Rodgers et al.

, 2018). In some instances, the ionizing factor is reported to be a potential risk factor. Continued exposure to chemical substances is associated with higher chances of risking cancer.
Albeit environmental pollution has raised public concern over the decades, further research on environmental exposures is crucial at community levels. Growing evidence supports the association between cancers and reduced rates of exposure to environmental pollutants (Nickels et al., 2013). Cancers comprise a diverse collection of diseases, whereby each disease is characterized by a typical clinical appearance, symptoms, and degree of severity. The much they share in common is the process that transpires at the cellular level that brings the whole difference about these diseases. Even though this cellular process may not raise the alarm from cancer patients along with their next of kin, it makes it easier to categorize cancers into homogenous groups, peculiarly when taking into account chemical substances that are associated with cancer (Rodgers et al., 2018). In reality, cancer in entirety is caused when a single typical cell reproduces in a disintegrated way, customarily at an anomalous fast pace. It is important to understand the various environmental aspects that might be connected to cancer.
By-products from water chlorination are known causes of cancer in childhood (Stewart & Wild, 2017). The quality of water is influenced by geology, seasons and discharges from industry and agriculture. Disinfectants for treating contaminated water contain oxides of chlorine, chloramine, and hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide contain potentially carcinogenic agents that cause cancer. Chlorination by-products occur from the interaction of chlorine with organic chemicals, the concentration of the by-products. The interaction leads to the formation of many halogenated compounds like trihalomethanes, which increase human susceptibility to cancer. While there are relatively small risks of cancer due to exposure to environmental carcinogens, it is feared that many cases are likely to be reported, due to increased prevalence of exposure, if based on the presumption of a causal relationship.
In spite of the little knowledge in the public domains, there is concern that environmental elements play a key role in cancer development than it has been previously established. To a large extent, these concerns spring from the actuality that incidence rates of many cancers have been on the increase throughout the previous decade (Stewart & Wild, 2017). Unfortunately, the conservative explanation offers no insight as to why this is happening. First, behaviors that are consistently associated with cancer; alcohol and consumption rates, have recorded a decrease in the same period. Second, it is improbable that genetic susceptibility to cancer has changed most significantly to suggest the increase (Nickels et al., 2013). Third, the U.S. and abroad, have seen obesity increase at alarming rates; obesity could be a result of some, but not all types of cancer whose rates have switched.
Cancer is triggered by changes in specific genes that alter the functionality of body cells. Some genetic changes occur naturally following the replication of DNA during the cell division (Simonds, Ghazarian, Pimentel, Schully, Ellison, Gillanders, & Mechanic, 2016), together with their from environmental exposures that change the DNA genetic makeup. Examples of substances that are synonymous with these exposures include radiations, like the sun’s ultraviolet light and tobacco smoke. Some cancer-causing exposures like the sun’s rays and tobacco smoke are easy to avoid, but others including the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat and materials we use at work are increasingly difficult to avoid. Interestingly, scientists are yet to document the exposures that are responsible for cancer development.
Environmental factors play a large part in the development of breast cancer Breast cancer comes from combined effects of myriad genetic, behavioral and environmental risks that are peculiar to each individual(Simonds et al., 2016). In studies involving animals, most environmental chemicals constitute of mammary gland carcinogens that stimulate relevant hormonal pathways and amplify mammary gland susceptibility to carcinogenesis. Cancer’s long latency and multifactorial etiology of breast cancer impose challenges when evaluating these chemicals. Getting to know which exposures are harmful, as well as where they are found, can help households avoid them.
Epidemiologic studies from across the world substantiate the contribution of environmental exposures to the development of cancer, particularly at childhood (Stewart & Wild, 2017). But this knowledge has not been included in the clinician routine practices, in spite that they have to take care of children suffering from cancer. In a web-based survey conducted by Zachek, Miller, Hsu, Schiffman, Sallan, Metayer, & Dahl (2015), many of the responses attested that most clinicians find exposure to the environmental exposures an important topic. The large part of the majority of respondents (89 percent) claimed to receive queries from families who need to know whether cancer, they are suffering from can be explained by environmental exposures (Zachek et al., 2015). However, clinicians are not comfortable with these topics¸ and decide to limit discussions when families take them to task to explain the link between childhood cancer pathogenesis and environmental exposures. Although 77 percent of respondents were suspicious that some cases originated from the environment, their narrations of environmental antiquities seemed to vary widely.
From this discussion, it is clear that exposure to diverse environments impacts the development and severity of different cancer types. It has been established that genetic variants vary significantly with environmental factors, including tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption, all of which play a part in developing risks of cancer. More training for oncology clinicians on cancer-related environmental health exposures and integration of emerging research findings is necessary while finding solutions to reduce the severity of cancer. Throughout this discussion, it is evident that the environment has greatly impacted major risks factors for cancer.
References
Nickels, S., Truong, T., Hein, R., Stevens, K., Buck, K., Behrens, S., …& Gaudet, M. (2013). Evidence of gene-environment interactions between common breast cancer susceptibility loci and established environmental risk factors.PLoS Genetics, 9(3), e1003284.
Rodgers, K. M., Udesky, J. O., Rudel, R. A., & Brody, J. G. (2018). Environmental chemicals and breast cancer: An updated review of the epidemiological literature informed by biological mechanisms. Environmental research, 160, 152-182.
Simonds, N. I., Ghazarian, A. A., Pimentel, C. B., Schully, S. D., Ellison, G. L., Gillanders, E. M., & Mechanic, L. E. (2016). Review of the Gene‐Environment Interaction Literature in Cancer: What Do We Know?.Genetic epidemiology, 40(5), 356-365.
Stewart, B. W. K. P., & Wild, C. P. (2017). World cancer report 2014. Health.
Zachek, C. M., Miller, M. D., Hsu, C., Schiffman, J. D., Sallan, S., Metayer, C., & Dahl, G. V. (2015). Children’s cancer and environmental exposures: professional attitudes and practices. Journal of pediatric hematology/oncology, 37(7), 491.