The 10 Most Common Cancers: Know The Signs and Symptoms

This year alone, over one million North Americans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer. So just how common is cancer? To put it like this, just over one in three people will become cancerous at some point in their lives. Of those cases, roughly 16 percent will be fatal. Perhaps the most unsettling element of cancer is how often the warning signs are ignored. Cancer is like a ticking time bomb and every day it is left untreated it becomes that much harder to eradicate. Symptoms such as unexplained soreness, fatigue, and illness are often overlooked until it’s too late.

Some types of cancer are easier to treat than others and certain forms of cancer are far more common than other. Diagnosing cancer in its early stages and starting treatment is literally the difference between life and death. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the warning signs of these common forms of cancer.

Non-melanoma skin cancer

It’s weird to think of your skin as an organ but that is exactly what it is. Sometimes, the cells which make up your skin begin to mutate or become abnormal. This can lead to harmless things like skin tags, moles or warts. Unfortunately, it can also cause the skin cells to become cancerous; at which point they begin to grow as they invade and destroy the surrounding tissue. About 80 percent of these cases occur just under the top layer of skin, a condition known as basal cell carcinoma. A far less common form of non-melanoma skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma forms on the outer layer of the skin. Merkel cell carcinoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma are two other, extremely rare forms of skin cancer.

This form of cancer usually appears on the head, neck, face, chest or shoulders. You should be looking for any odd changes on your skin such as irritations or growths. Changes in existing moles and skin markings can also be an early indicator of cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancer is slow moving and considered easy to catch but if left untreated has been known to metastasize which means cancer has spread to other areas of the body