Transcription:
Debunking Cancer Myths

Gabby Cinnamon: Welcome back to Conversations On Cancer, brought to you by the Riverside Cancer Institute. Today, I'm very excited to be joined by Shannon Male, an oncology nurse practitioner here at the Riverside Cancer Institute. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast today, Shannon.

Shannon Male: Thanks for having me.

Gabby Cinnamon: So you have a lot of experience in the oncology field as a nurse, nurse practitioner. And I'm sure through the years, you've heard patients come in or their family members with some interesting preconceived notions about cancer. Maybe things that are true, maybe things that aren't true. In today's podcast, you're going to help us debunk some of the most common cancer myths that we hear and hopefully, you know, try to help those who are maybe starting a cancer journey or a family member who's doing research about cancer and maybe some of these put their minds at ease because not all of these things are true that you hear.

Shannon Male: Correct. Yeah. I'm happy to help.

Gabby Cinnamon: Okay. So are you ready to give us some knowledge here? Our first myth or fact you have to tell us, "Regular checkups in today's medical technology can detect all types of cancer early." True or false?

Shannon Male: Well, not totally true. So there are breast cancer screenings, like with mammograms. They do do lung cancer screenings with the lungs for life. So there are some screenings, some pap smears and stuff like that. I mean, these screenings can help catch cancer early, but some types of cancers don't really have symptoms and they're kind of vague symptoms and you kind of blow it off as something else. And then, usually, when they do start having symptoms, unfortunately, it's at a later stage.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah. So kind of what you're saying is there are some things that are in your control as far as getting screenings and trying to detect it early, but there are some types of cancer that might not present until they're in a later stage.

Shannon Male: Correct. Correct. And a lot of times I think patients try to treat some of their symptoms at home, which is good with over-the-counter prescriptions. But if symptoms become persistent or they're not responding to, you know, over-the-counter medications, definitely seek medical attention.

Gabby Cinnamon: Got it. Got it. Our next myth or fact is "When you are getting cancer treatments, you cannot work or do any of your usual activities."

Shannon Male: This is completely false. Many people can continue to go to work and do their usual daily activities while getting cancer treatment. But it's not true for everybody. Typically, there's always a handful of patients that do get sick from their treatment and are not able to work or sometimes develop side effects from the treatment, and they're not able to work. But majority of people still are able to do their normal daily activities and still work their 40 hours a week.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah, I'm sure a lot of it is, like listening to your body and there might be times when you can work and then times when you can't, like you said.

Shannon Male: Yeah, absolutely. And cancer treatment is cumulative. So usually, as you get more and more treatments, you can have more and more of the side effects. So sometimes people can work up to their first couple of cycles and then they have to go to part-time. But majority of people still work.

Gabby Cinnamon: That's great. That's great to hear. Our next myth or fact is "Cancer is always painful."

Shannon Male: That is false. Sometimes there's zero pain with cancer.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah. I think sometimes people expect just because the treatment is so rigorous, that it might present as pain. But like you've said earlier, there's so many different ways that a cancer can present and then, even going through treatment, you might not experience pain, but you might experience fatigue or other symptoms that aren't pain as well, so kind of throughout the continuum.

Shannon Male: Correct.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah. Our next one is "Everyone with the same kind of cancer gets the same kind of treatment."

Shannon Male: Oh, that's false. So each cancer is treated with a different type of chemotherapy. The way I explain it to patients. It's kind of like an infection, right? You don't treat strep as the same as you would like an upper respiratory infection. So that's how the cancers are treated, each cancer is treated with a different type of medication. All in the chemotherapy family, but a different type of chemotherapy.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah. That's why it's important to kind of like what you all emphasize here, is like working with your cancer care team to find a plan that's best for you because maybe you know someone who had the same kind of cancer as you and your treatment might not necessarily look the same as what theirs looks like.

Shannon Male: Correct. And I'll get family members that'll come in. And if I'm seeing somebody with breast cancer, somebody'll come and be like, "Well, my uncle had colon cancer and he had this and this and this." Well, colon cancer is not treated the same as breast cancer. So it's a good conversation to have, because a lot of times people don't know.

Gabby Cinnamon: Right, right. The next one is that "Cancer is contagious."

Shannon Male: This is mostly false and it is false, but one of the cancers that we're seeing and we're seeing at high cases of it actually is like head and neck cancers or cervical cancers that is caused from HPV, which is a sexually transmitted virus, and you typically don't know you have it. So, true and false.

Gabby Cinnamon: But you know, there are always exceptions to everything, overall, yeah.

Shannon Male: And then like Epstein Barr virus is another one that people can get that can increase their risk for malignancies as well. Cancer isn't contagious, but certain viruses can cause a cancer diagnosis and not in everybody.

Gabby Cinnamon: Right. And that makes sense. So our next one is that "Because my mother or father had cancer, I will get cancer." True or false?

Shannon Male: That is false. Although there are certain genetic links that we know of, and I swear every month, there's new links that are found, which is great. And it's something that they're actually developing medications to actually target those certain genes, which is also great. But majority, as of now, I believe genetic cancers only are about 8% to 10% of cancers are genetically linked. So majority of cancers that we do see don't have any genetic component. So I do get that question a lot, like "I don't have family history of cancer, nobody in my family's ever had cancer. How did I get it?" And it's unlikely that there's a genetic component there.

Gabby Cinnamon: Wow. That's really interesting, because we do hear a lot about genetics and, like you said, that can play a factor, but it's interesting because, yeah, I think people automatically assume, which like you said, your risk might be increased, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get that.

Shannon Male: I think people should get tested for their genetic link if somebody in their family has it because then preventative screening starts sooner. So if you do have a family history, definitely get tested and definitely start screening because, if we can catch it early, we can treat it.

Gabby Cinnamon: Right, right. Moving into kind of the treatment realm of things, our next myth or fact is "Chemotherapy will cause me to lose my hair."

Shannon Male: Yes and no. Certain chemotherapies do cause hair loss, not all of them. Some just cause hair thinning, some cause full hair loss and some don't cause any hair loss whatsoever. So it really depends on the type of chemotherapy that you receive.

Gabby Cinnamon: Yeah. And sometimes, maybe even too on the person as well. Like we said, people sometimes react differently to things.

Shannon Male: They do. And sometimes if people are already having hair loss, sometimes the less hair loss-causing agents can cause you to lose hair. So everybody's kind of individual, but there are a handful of drugs when I see patients and be like, "Yep, you're going to lose your hair" or "There's a 50/50 shot you're going to lose your hair" or "No, you don't really lose your hair with this one." So nothing's a hundred percent, right? It's not a guarantee, but there are some drugs that we can say, "Yay."

Gabby Cinnamon: Right. Our final myth or fact is " Some types of cancers are preventable."

Shannon Male: True. This is definitely true. There are things that we do in our life that can definitely prevent cancer. One of the ones that we can't really prevent is aging. You know, back when I started in oncology, that's what cancer was considered was the disease of aging. It's not the disease of aging anymore. We're seeing younger and younger people, but there are some lifestyles that we do that increase our risk, especially alcohol consumption. Everybody knows smoking. I think one of the things with smoking is people just automatically assume it just causes lung cancer, but it's the number one cause of kidney cancer, is smoking.

Gabby Cinnamon: Wow.

Shannon Male: People don't realize that either, but smoking does increase your risk for cancer. Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, diet, hormone replacement therapy. So there's a lot of lifestyles that we can do to prevent or decrease our risk because we don't know who's going to get it. I've known people that have smoked for 60 years and don't get lung cancer and people that smoke 10 years in college and they develop a smoking type of lung cancer. Why one person gets it and not the other, we don't really have the answer for that. I wish we did, but we don't. And certain exposures to chemicals can increase your risk for cancer. So you want to make sure that you're using the appropriate protective gear and equipment to make sure that you're decreasing your risk for exposure.

Gabby Cinnamon: there are so many things that are out of our control medically, but I think kind of overall, it helps to know there are some things a little bit in your control. You know, as far as, like you said, the lifestyle choices you make and keeping up with those screenings and making sure that you're getting the right screenings for your age, those things are on your control. But, hopefully, like we talked about earlier, catch that cancer early if you can.

Shannon Male: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm a huge advocate for screenings. Even if somebody is seeing me for-- I don't just see oncology. I do see people that are iron-deficient, hematology patients as well. I mean, I talk to them about their mammograms, their colonoscopies, their bone density, their pap smears, because I want to make sure they're seeking these preventative screenings. Even though we're not seeing them, I want to make sure they're primary or if they don't have a primary, I will order it and kind of talk to them about the importance of having this done.

Gabby Cinnamon: I think that's a great place to end off on. Thank you so much, Shannon, for coming on the podcast today and thank you for debunking these myths with us and hopefully putting some minds at ease. I think this will help a lot of people.

Shannon Male: Great. Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it.

Gabby Cinnamon: And thank you listeners for tuning into Conversations on Cancer, brought to you by the Riverside Cancer Institute. Make sure to leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcasts. To learn more about the Riverside Cancer Institute, visit riversidehealthcare.org/cancer.