Why people die from cancer

I wonder why so many people die from caner these days. From an article below, Debra was a fellow school mate from VJC and I was shocked to find out about her passing away. I see people who don't drink or smoke, and yet suddenly they have cancer. Any thoughts or readings you have come across? Attached the news about Debra below.

Radio presenter's death comes as a shock
By TODAY | Posted: 07 May 2008 0825 hrs

SINGAPORE : Well-known 938LIVE presenter Deborah de Souza, 37, died on Tuesday after a short battle with stomach cancer.

According to her mother Rita de Souza, the former host of Body and Soul had been diagnosed with the disease after a continued bout of gastric problems. "We didn't know at the beginning because stomach cancer has no symptoms," said Mrs de Souza.

The news of her death came as a shock to some of her colleagues who said she was well known for her cheerful laugh and personality. She was also a capable and well-respected presenter with a passion for her work- and health-related issues.

Equally at home with live programmes and packaged ones, Ms de Souza was not only a commentator for the National Day Parade but also did a series of stories on vanishing trades in Singapore that was so well received that it was produced into a CD.

Ms de Souza, who had shunned conventional chemotherapy and surgery in favour of alternative treatment, found out about her condition in January. By February, the cancer had spread, said her mother. But she kept her spirits up throughout her ordeal.

Ms Gerardine Tan, senior programme director at 938LIVE, who was both a colleague and childhood friend, said: "When she was diagnosed, she was at peace. She said this was God's plan." - TODAY /ls

I was looking around info for cancer, and I came across some article on the endurance cyclist Lance Armstrong. Reading about him, shape my belief that having a good foundation body condition give one a strong fighting chance against the disease. One attribute of his health is his high VO2Max, at 81, common among endurance sportmans.

So Lance Amstrong found he has testicular cancer, and he didn't do anything until he show severe symptom and by that time, the cancer already spread thru his abdominal, lungs and brains. Well he chose conventional treatment, i.e surgery, drugs and chemo. And thruout his treatment, he did not suffer any major side effect that many cancer patient suffer chemo treatment. And after he recovered, he went to win a few more rounds of tour de france championship, ran a couple of marathons under 3hrs..

My thoughts is having a good body health foundation gives us a good fighting chance against such disease. It will lessen side effect, and lesser risk to succumb treatment such as chemo. My measure for health is VO2max, and currently my predicted (don't know where to test for actual reading) VO2max is 39, base on my 10km run. Hope to improve this by doing my interval runs, long distance run, and high intensity work out.