Like every year, Télévie campaigns to collect donations to finance the fight and research against cancer.
According to the cancer.be website, 70,468 cases of cancer were diagnosed in Belgium in 2018. Guest of RTL info Welcome, doctor of hematology Dominique Bron explains that “it takes two steps to develop cancer.”
“The first is a mutation in our genetic heritage: mutation of a gene that affects a cell that begins to proliferate in an anarchic way or a gene that prevents the cell from aging and therefore from dying and therefore it accumulates”. “The second stage is that we have an immune system that is deficient”explains the specialist.
Who can catch it?
Dr. Bron adds that there is “three major groups of causes for getting cancer” :
The first cause is behavioral and can be attributed to our habits. “Tobacco, alcohol, sunlight, an unbalanced diet (for example too rich in red meat)”, details Dominique Bron.
“The second causes are environmental”, continue the specialist. “We recently talked about the scandals linked to asbestos which caused cancer in factories. Most of the pesticides and insecticides which were considered carcinogenic have been eliminated so we are making good progress, but there are still environmental factors. like diesel microparticles. We know very well that in cities where there is a high rate of microparticles there is more cancer.”
“The third causes are predispositions. We know that there are families who are decimated by breast cancers. There are people who are more predisposed to develop.”
Together, these three groups account for about 50% of cancers,”for the others we do not have the cause. It’s just a cell that has tripped and has not been controlled by our system.”details the specialist.
Advancements
Over the years and thanks to the donations collected, researchers have been able to make great strides in the fight against cancer. “There is great enthusiasm for immunotherapy in tumors where chemotherapy does not have much impact. Now there are cancers that were killers a few years ago that are having dramatic responses with immunotherapy.”
There are three ways to fight or reduce the incidence of cancer, according to Dominique Bron: a healthy lifestyle, screening and paying for Télévie. “Télévie has been working for over 30 years, I have seen considerable progress in treatment and understanding. The more we will understand, the more we will heal, so I encourage you to support Télévie.”concludes the specialist.