Dr. Alexander Petrovsky, Oncologist, Deputy Director of the Blokhin Scientific Research Oncology Center, declared that the best way to prevent cancer is to conduct an annual and timely examination.

On the World Cancer Day, which falls on February 4 of each year, the expert notes that there are no specific and specific symptoms of cancer, and as a rule, pain appears in an advanced stage of the disease. Therefore, what prevents the development of the disease, is to have an annual examination with a specialist doctor.

“Cancer diseases do not have specific symptoms,” he says. “In most cases, the pain appears when the disease has advanced a lot.”

He adds, explaining, that cancers appear in different ways, so that sometimes high blood pressure is a symptom of cancer, such as a tumor of the adrenal cortex. But the patient cannot determine whether his symptoms indicate that he has cancer.

Petrovsky notes that for the diagnosis of cancer, a program is underway in Russia to detect the most common cancers – colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.

He adds, if a person begins to suspect that he has this malignant disease, he should consult the general practitioner, who will decide, after conducting the examination and necessary tests, to refer him to an oncologist if necessary.

According to Petrovsky, cancer is a disease of the elderly, with the average age of patients being 60 years. So the older a person gets, the more likely he is to get cancer.