"I'm fine with the advice to eat a lot of berries, garlic and cabbage." Oncologist Ilya Fomintsev on how to protect yourself from cancer

Doctors now know more about cancer than ever before. They understand why it appears, how it develops and how it can be influenced. But oncology continues to frighten and generate myths in the minds of people. We talked about some of them with the famous oncologist Ilya Fomintsev, and at the same time found out whether it is necessary to undergo an annual medical examination.

- First, the main question: is it really possible to prevent cancer? Maybe there are some vaccines, drugs that few people know about?

- Yes, there is a myththat pharmaceutical companies know how to prevent cancer, but, afraid of losing money, do not tell anyone about it. But if a conditional “cancer vaccine” existed, all of humanity would already know about it. The pharmaceutical company that would develop it would not hesitate to collect all the money in the world. After all, the demand would be fantastic! But no one does this, which means that there is simply no drug.

Only one type of cancer is guaranteed to be protected against: cervical cancer. Every person who has sex at least once in their life is highly likely to be infected papilloma virus person. This in itself, of course, does not guarantee dysplasia and cancerous changes in the cervix, but it increases the risks.

The absence of HPV means that there will be no cervical cancer. So I would say that HPV vaccination is the most justified thing. Due to the cost, this vaccine is unlikely to be included in the CHI system, but it is worth doing it at your own expense to everyone who has not yet begun a sexual life. And for those who have already started, too: it reduces the risk cervical cancer and many other cancers associated with HPV.

Does this mean that in general, there is no protection against cancer?

- No. All risk factors are divided into non-modifiable (that is, those that cannot be influenced) and modifiable. The former include heredity, the latter - nutrition, habits, physique.

In general, you cannot change your biological parents, but knowing about their state of health, you can better understand your risks and be examined on time. Well, try to exclude from life the factors that increase cancer risk.

They listed website of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. These are smoking (both active and passive), obesity, lack of physical activity, unhealthy diet, alcohol consumption, living in an ecologically unfavorable location, ignoring vaccination, hormone therapy, exposure to direct sunlight and radiation.

So bad habits really cause cancer?

Smoking and alcohol have been proven to increase the risk of cancer. Of course, he is not directly called in the style of "Hello, cancer, we are here in the lungs - come out." It just starts a certain chain of changes that increases its likelihood. Smoking most often affects the larynx and lungs, alcohol - gastrointestinal tract. So yes, avoiding all of that greatly increases the chance of not getting cancer.

- Well, with smoking and alcohol, everything is more or less clear, but the diet leaves questions. What should be excluded from the diet, and what should be added to it?

- Diet that could fully protect against cancer does not yet exist. There are a lot of studies of conditional "British scientists" that this or that product increases or decreases the risk of cancer. The results of these studies are most often multidirectional and do not allow any sane conclusion to be drawn. But be sure: if there are foods that really increase or decrease the risk of cancer, they will certainly be trumpeted by the whole world. You definitely won't miss this one.

So it was, for example, with the well-known asbestos - this is not a product, but a substance that significantly increases the risk of cancer. When this was discovered, the hype around was such that asbestos was excluded from building technologies everywhere.

We can probably say that the active consumption of red meat slightly increases the risk of colorectal cancer. But it is hardly possible to really overpower such an amount of meat. Fried foods have been shown to be somewhat carcinogenic, but again, the link is not very strong.

You can hear: "Sugar causes cancer." But this is not so either. As a chemical, sugar is safe. What really poses a threat is an excess of calories. If you eat a lot of sugaryou will simply become obese and increase your risk for cancer.

At the same time, I normally relate to the advice to eat a lot of berries, garlic and cabbage. Yes, they won’t save you from cancer by themselves, but at least you won’t gain weight. So, reduce the risk of getting sick by one factor.

- Vitamins and dietary supplements will not save either?

- It’s hard for me to imagine how in modern realities you can eat in order to seriously lose vitamins. In the vast majority of cases, a person gets everything he needs with food. That is about beriberi can't talk here. As well as the fact that some vitamins can prevent cancer.

The idea of ​​a link between vitamins and cancer was actively promoted by Linus Pauling. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, then the Nobel Peace Prize. And after all this, he went crazy: he came to the conclusion that vitamin C helps prevent cancer. Pauling already had a super reputation in his field, so this myth was received with a standing ovation. Then Pauling also wrote the book Vitamin C and the Cold, in which he also mentioned this idea. The book, unfortunately, also became popular in its time.

I heard about aspirin. Can he help?

Aspirin does reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. This is a direct chemical action of aspirin, and indeed of all NSAIDs. But, of course, this does not mean that we all need to drink aspirin. It has its own side effects, the harm from which can easily exceed the benefits of prevention. So the risk-to-benefit ratio is very questionable here.

Aspirin is regularly taken by many people suffering from cardiovascular disease, because it protects against thrombosis, and cancer prevention is a bonus, nothing more.

Can physical and mental trauma cause cancer?

- When a person develops a tumor, he usually tends to find the causes of what happened in some way. You can often hear: "Indeed, it was with this elbow that I hit myself in a trolley bus a month ago." But cancer usually takes many years to develop. There is no direct link between trauma and cancer.

No proven information about psychogenic there are no sources of cancer either. Another question is that, being in severe stressful circumstances for a long time, a person is more prone to depression and, as a result, to smoking, alcoholism, low mobility, and obesity. And these factors in themselves, as we have already discussed, can increase the risk of oncology.

Do you need regular screening to prevent cancer?

— The very idea of ​​medical examination is a great thing. But the way it is being implemented in Russia evokes rather negative emotions in me. There is simply no universal medical examination for all citizens of the country of approximately the same age category. And the harm here may be even more than good. A poor-quality diagnostic process can lead to inaccurate results and the appointment of extended examinations, which can be quite difficult for a person to endure. And some studies are dangerous in and of themselves because of their high invasiveness.

In addition, there is a rather non-obvious thing: if you revealed cancer, it does not mean at all that you have brought a benefit to a person. With some tumors, even at an early stage, nothing can be done. And other species are so well treated that even their discovery already in the later stages will not lead to the death of a person. So there is a place for screening only in the area where the cancer is approximately "medium risk".

Screening (detection at an asymptomatic stage) is subject to only four types of cancer: colorectal, cervical, mammary gland and lungs. In other cases, it is pointless to be examined if nothing bothers you. It will do more harm than good.

The same goes for self-examination. If cancer can already be detected with one's own hands, this is definitely not an asymptomatic phase. When suspicious formations appear on the skin, it naturally makes sense to see a doctor. But every morning to examine the body in search of nevus not worth it.

The most reasonable thing that can be done in terms of surveys is to understand which ones you need. The list of examinations will be influenced by gender, age, heredity, past diseases. So you better get through online survey and get the necessary minimum of examinations, which will affect only your risk areas. Now it makes sense to keep them under control.