Cancer triggers

Tina Brown

This subject is a particular interest to me. I am utterly convinced that unrelated factors which happened to me triggered off my cancer.

1. A year before my diagnosis I suffered a breakdown. My mum died and a relationship I was having (he can only be described as the love of my life and my soul mate) ended quite abruptly. Thus the breakdown. The heartache I experienced was so intense I can not find any words that suitably can describe it. They talk about "heartbreak" I now know exactly what is meant by that because I used to get a physical pain inside of me as I was trying to get over the break up.

2. 2 months before my diagnosis I went into hospital for a gynae operation to repair a prolapse. When the surgeon came to see me after the operation she said "I gave your uterus a little tug to make sure it was secure and I didn't need to do a full hysterectomy" My uterus was secure and intact.

Now I am no oncologist, but if my immense grief and stress triggered off my cancer, then the "little tug" could quite easily have disturbed the cancer cells that were in my pelvic area and sent them off around the peritoneum. I am BRCA 2+ so I was pre-disposed toward this type of cancer. I just didn't stand a chance!

I would really be interested to hear from anyone else who thinks their cancer was triggered by something.

Tina xxx

JulieL

Cancer Triggers
Hi Tina

It has long been my suspicion also that a traumatic event in one's life could trigger the cancer cells into action. I have seen friends and family to whom this has happened. My dearest friend was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her husband had a stroke and other family difficulties and sadly passed away just over a year later. There have been a number of similar situations with people I have known or known of.

However, with me, I have to say one of the reasons I was initially totally disbelieving of my diagnosis, was that life was travelling along so well for me in every way and I was not feeling unwell at all - it really did come totally come out of the blue. Quite frankly part of me is still wondering if it hasn't been a huge error - but then maybe that is normal too!

Sorry I can't contribute very much to this thread but thought I would pass on my thoughts!

JulieL x

SOPHIE333

Yes
Hi Tina,
Mum is convinced her cancer was trigged off by her quitting smoking and was about to be retired at the same time and thereby stepping down in pace ironically getting more time to care about herself.
/Sophie

wanttogetwellsoon

triggers
I was diagnosed after a series of major life changing events so maybe there's something in what you say about stress because that's how I was feeling at the time - very. LaundryQ was saying about the link with weight loss and hormone release which I think is interesting. I do need to lose some weight as I put on about a stone and a half over the last year most of which went on during chemotherapy. I wasn't exactly thin in the first place and I'm not as fit as I was. It's hard to get about quickly and I can't do as much physically as I did so it's a viscious circle. It might seem silly, but if I jump on the scales and I've lost weight (even if I know I haven't eaten much)I panic totally that it's a symptom that the disease is on the move. There should be a name for this type of paranoia! There most probably is already. I really appreciate what people here have to say about treatments, research and theories.

Best Friend

i hear ya!
I always feel my mom's cancer was somehow ignited by her colitis. Colitis runs in our famly and she had it when i was young, than it sort of calmed and than she started having bowel problems again. well, she in the end before they found the cancer developed another form of colitis she didn't have before and it was viral so she was than on an antibiotic for it. However, she was also filled with cancer they still had yet to find......i hate docs.
Also, years ago she had gallbladder problems and she had surgery to have it removed and i think that it like ignited it or that was the primary and they just made it worse.
I am one of those people that yeah, i believe we all have cancer in our bodies, but i think the medical field plays with fire when they do all these surgeries and medicines. we don't know what exactly besides cigarettes, and hormones, and whatever else ignites these cells. it's only gonna get worse the more we poke around. The key here is that they need to start working on a vaccine for babies or something that fights this crazy stuff. I think it's too late for these cures. I mean look at the HPV vaccination for teen girls. When i was young we didn't have that. I am 34 and have HPV. Now these girls are protected aganst a serious disease that causes cervical cancer. It's all in the prevention now ladies.

wanttogetwellsoon

Best Friend said:

i hear ya!
I always feel my mom's cancer was somehow ignited by her colitis. Colitis runs in our famly and she had it when i was young, than it sort of calmed and than she started having bowel problems again. well, she in the end before they found the cancer developed another form of colitis she didn't have before and it was viral so she was than on an antibiotic for it. However, she was also filled with cancer they still had yet to find......i hate docs.
Also, years ago she had gallbladder problems and she had surgery to have it removed and i think that it like ignited it or that was the primary and they just made it worse.
I am one of those people that yeah, i believe we all have cancer in our bodies, but i think the medical field plays with fire when they do all these surgeries and medicines. we don't know what exactly besides cigarettes, and hormones, and whatever else ignites these cells. it's only gonna get worse the more we poke around. The key here is that they need to start working on a vaccine for babies or something that fights this crazy stuff. I think it's too late for these cures. I mean look at the HPV vaccination for teen girls. When i was young we didn't have that. I am 34 and have HPV. Now these girls are protected aganst a serious disease that causes cervical cancer. It's all in the prevention now ladies.

prevention
I understand what you say Best F about treating the disease before it even has time to wake up. I think the danger is that too much medical funding will go into prevention. Meanwhile, people who have it are deprived of life enhancing/prolonging drugs. Sometimes these things just happen which makes me very sad.