• Question: what is the least harmful type of cancer

    Asked by jemimaw on 21 Jun 2023.
    • Photo: Zahra Rattray

      Zahra Rattray answered on 21 Jun 2023:

      This is a great question. Generally benign tumours are well contained and will often be easily treatable, but malignant tumours are more tricky to treat as they are more likely to travel to other parts of the body. Also if you catch some cancers really early e.g., stage 1 breast cancer it is much easier to treat it.

    • Photo: Tammy Piper

      Tammy Piper answered on 21 Jun 2023:

      In-situ tumours (as in the tumour grows slowly and stays in one place and usually bound in a membrane) can have the best prognosis as they are usually slow growing (can take up to 10 years to go form in-situ to invasive disease) and can be treated with surgery. Depending on where they grow and how big they can get before detection, they can cause issues by blocking blood vessels, lymph glands or compressing nerves, so not totally harmless.

Comments