Literature review assignment on Climate Change and Cancer Riskin the UK

Question

Task: Write a literature review assignment on the topic Climate Change and Cancer Riskin the UK. Use a search strategy and include quantitative and qualitative data. Mention the key findings by using data and models.

Answer

Introduction
There are many people around the world who are of the belief that climate changecauses cancer or at least enhances the risk of getting cancer. There are researchers who have reported in their literature review assignmentthat the diagnoses of cancer among the global population continue to rise. According to Close et al (2019), the people from the age group of 15 to 39 years are more likely to be affected by cancer in the United States. The increase in cancer could be because of thyroid cancer. The rate of increase is high for colorectal as well as other forms of cancer. Experts have mentioned in their studies that lifestyle issues and obesity are few of the major causes of cancer among the global population (Dinmohamed et al, 2020).There are various studies and literature review assignmentresearches being conducted for investigating if climate change is causing cancer or has adverse impacts on health. There are many literature review assignmentpapers with data which suggest that climate changecauses health adversities among human beings. This literature review assignmentwill review various papers to understand the relationship between climate change and cancer risk.

Presentation of Data for the literature review assignment
The social as well as environmental determinants that are related to health are affected by climate change. According to Sunget al. (2021), between the year 2030 and 2050 almost 25000 more deaths every year is likely to take place due to climate change. But in the 21st century, cancer has been regarded as the foremost cause of death. It is analysed in this literature review assignmentthat the year 2015-2019 has been regarded as the warmest years recorded whereas, 2020 has been affected largely due to climate change. Araghiet al. (2019) stated that climate change restricts the overall care that is required for cancer patients. In the year 2019 a literature review assignmentstudy in the cancer models and theories reported that patients going through non-small cell luger are likely to expire due to disruption in radiation caused by climate change such as hurricane. Hurricane Maria in the year 2018 destroyed a factory that manufactured several cancer treatment amenities. It has been found that environmental carcinogens due to climate change has turned out to be a major cause behind cancer. It has been estimated that 15 percent of lung cancer has been mostly due to climate change(Fiordelisi et al, 2019). It is found in the literature review assignmentthat the climate change has also disrupted the production of food supply. In other words, increased temperature, drought as well as flooding has been impacting the quality as well as quantity of food supply. As a result, it has been reported that approximately 534,000 deaths globally due to cancer are likely to take place due to changes in food supply within the year 2050. On the other hand, another global pandemic, Covid 19 increased breast, colon as well as cervical cancer by 94 percent during the first four months in the year 2020 (Frumkin and Haines, 2019). This further worsened due to delay in screenings as well as lack of proper care. It has been estimated in the literature review assignmentthat an additional of almost 10000 more deaths are likely to take place over the next decade due to colorectal as well as breast cancer.

Presentation of Models & Theoriesfor the literature review assignment
There are various models of cancer which are mainly used for the purpose of discovery of the disease and the treatment of cancer. However, with time the models are changing and are growing into more advanced versions for better pre-clinical literature review assignmentresearch and diagnosis. The cancer models as per Sarkies(2020), are either prepared artificially or exist naturally. These are foundational experimental systems. The models of cancer show familiar traits with the human tumours. These models are quite familiar with the heterogeneous features of the tumour. For cancer examination, the right choice of the best suiting model for reflecting the given tumour system is a real challenge. There are various literature review assignmentstudies being conducted today on the cancer models for the purpose of development of deeper understanding of the invasion of cancer, the progression and the timely detection of the disease. The cancer models and theories provide insight about the disease, its symptoms and after effects, the cancer etiology, host tumour interaction, molecular basis, tumour heterogeneity in tumour metastasis and role of the microenvironment (Parascandola and Xiao, 2019). The theories and models of cancer are mainly used for the purpose of predicting the novel markers of cancer and the targeted therapies. These are highly useful for the drug development for cancer treatment. The potential models of cancer are utilised as a platform for the purpose of therapeutic discoveries and drug screening (Fiordelisi et al, 2019). However, none of the cancer models mentioned in the literature review assignmentare considered to be ideal as every model is related to essential caveats which restraint the application of the model. Nevertheless these models bridge the gap between the translational medicine and preliminary research on cancer. They also promise a better cancer treatment in future.

Discussion
There is sufficient data to suggest in the literature review assignmentthat there is a close connection between climate changes, air pollution and the increase in the rate of lung cancer among the global population. Due to human activities, global warming and ozone layer depletion, the climate is changing constantly. According to Namekawa et al (2019), this climate change is causing increase in cancer diagnoses caused by rising temperatures, wildfires and certain other environmental aggravators. It can be said from the interpretation of the literature review assignmentdata that cancer risk can be aggravated by climate change. There is variety of factors like increase in the exposure to UV rays, the risk of being exposed to toxic chemicals, exposure to heat, reduction in the access to cancer screenings and relevant care, etc.

As opined by Kisiel et al (2022), the climate changes increase the exposure to the carcinogens. The access to cancer care is further disrupted by climate change. The interventions however, can turn the cancer facilities quite resilient. They might further lead to a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions out of the cancer care units. The climate changes need to be mitigated so that it creates co-health advantages for both the cancer patients and others. Specifically the environmental consequences that are caused by the carbon emissions or are a result of climate change have the potential of resulting in increased cancer risk. It could further lead to disruptions in the access to cancer care as well as higher rates of mortality (YOUNG et al, 2021). The data interpretation for the literature review assignmentfurther suggests that the climate changes taking place across the globe will impact the ability of providing the present standard of cancer care to the patients. The patients suffering from cancer will be facing problems related to accessing the cancer care due to the extreme weather conditions. During the pandemic, in the places under quarantine, patients suffering from cancer also faced challenges in accessing care services. The climate changes create a lot of reasons which risk the general health of people and create potential risks of cancer. Thus, cancer prevention, cancer detection and cancer management are important for fighting this epidemic (Matthews-Trigg, Vanos and Ebi, 2019).

(Source:Joko Fru et al, 2020)

Cancer as stated by Vineis et al (2021), has emerged as one of the leading reasons behind premature death in quite a few nations across the world, observed over the recent decades. There are quite a few climate related modifiable factors which could reduce the risk of cancer among the global population. It is reported in the literature review assignmentthat the cancer burden could be minimised by maintaining the environmental factors. The modifiable factors affecting the climate adversely include the lifestyle of the people and the human activities. The inequality in cancer survival is also due to the climatic factors. These climate changes increase the cancer inequities because of the complex association with the modifiable factors (Brenner and Chen, 2018). Once the modifiable factors like abnormal temperature, air pollution, UV rays, food or diet, natural disasters, infections, water pollution and inadequate physical activities are controlled, the climate change would reduce, furthering lowering the cancer risks. The problem of inequities pertaining to the risk of cancer should be addressed by the government (Agbafe et al, 2022).

The disruption that is being taking place due to climate change is likely to increase further without any rapid action. Poor air quality, wildfires as well as increased temperatures are likely to remain the major cause behind increasing cancer rates (Kucera et al, 2020). It has been found in the literature review assignmentthat change in climate causes exposure to carcinogens that increases cancer risk. Cancer care such as diagnosis as well as successful prevention gets disrupted due to change in climate. Patients with cancer are mostly vulnerable to the impacts that are caused by climate change. As climate change is varying the regularity, power as well as behaviour of life-threatening weather events, it is worsening the helplessness of communities to natural disasters (Rumgay et al., 2021). This is it difficult to fix and act in response to gradually changeable and severe weather. Cancer care gets interfered due to extreme weather conditions such as Hurricane Maria that occurred in the year 2018. The factory in Puerto Rico producing intravenous fluid bags got completely destroyed due to Hurricane Maria. It is found in the literature review assignmentthat the cancer treatment are likely to get worsened due to disturbances to health care access and delivery. These are particularly concerning for patients with cancer since interruptions in cancer analysis and treatment commencement and disruption of cancer treatment can worsen cancer prognosis. The clinical infrastructures that carry out cancer treatment also gets threatened due to extreme weather conditions (Yang, Zhang and Yang, 2020).

Conclusion
It could be concluded from the literature review assignmentthat cancer risk has been increasing gradually due to exposure to carcinogens caused due to climate change. The climate changes lead to a lot of causes which risk the over-all health of individuals and generate probable risks related to cancer. Life-threatening weather events can hinder access of patients to cancer care as well as the capability of cancer treatment amenities to deliver care.It has been estimated in the literature review assignmentthat 15 per cent of lung cancer has been mostly due to climate change. It could be inferred that in low-resource countries access to cancer care has turned out to be all the more difficult due to low or non-existence of proper amenities. Increasing temperatures as well as drought and flooding have always hindered proper care for cancer patients.As per the literature review assignmentfindings, the adaptableaspectsdisturbing the climate unfavourably include the existence of the individuals and the human activities. It is imperative to reduce or diminish the disruptions caused by climate change to reduce cancer risk.

Reference List
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