World Cancer Day 2013: Timely Treatment Can Save Lives

As the world observes World Cancer Day, Bulgarian doctors urged people to be aware and consult doctors even if they doubt a minor abscess of cancer.

Timely treatment can help curbing the spread of disease, they said.

"We want to tell people that cancer is not scary, that cancer is not a death sentence, that there is life after cancer," the director of Bulgaria's national oncology hospital in Sofia Zdravka Valerianova told Darik radio.

"People just have to know some basic things about cancer – how they can prevent the disease, when to go to see a specialist and what to do."

The World Cancer Day 2013 will focus on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration 2008: Dispel damaging myths and misconceptions about cancer, under the tagline "Cancer - Did you know?".

The primary aim of the World Cancer Day 2013 is to clear the myth regarding cancer among the people who understand that there is no cure of cancer available so far.

But the truth is that with improved technologies, cancer has become easily manageable and side effects of the treatment also get lowered.

Eating habits and doing sports are also crucial.

Latest research has shown that quitting smoking remains an important way to reduce cancer risks, but giving meat, eggs and dairy products the boot is just as vital.