Cancer is not a death sentence, but only a diagnosis, and it is possible to cure or prolong the life of such patients, just of the positive outcome of treatment in such cases, the general public is not aware, but in the case of death, many know about it, said on December 18 at press conference in Yerevan the Deputy Director of the National center of Oncology Gagik Bazikyan.

According to him, in 2012 there were approximately 8000 patients registered with cancer diagnosis, and compared with 2008 this figure rose to 13.4%, but the mortality rate increased only by 6.7%.G.Bazikyan reported that at the end of 2012 in the country there were 32 000 patients with cancer under the monitoring, of which 18000 lived more than five years after treatment. «However, the bad thing is that we can not advertise our successes, and there is an opinion among people, that the patients with cancer die. But that is not true. Cancer is just a dignosis, not a death warrant, and we have success stories», he mentioned.

According to the doctor, there are several stages of cancer: precancer, stages I, II, III, IV. If the disease is determined at a precancerous stage, the degree of cure is 100 percent, if at the Ist stage, then 5 years after that live 90-92% of the patients, if the cancer is determined in phase II -it is 50-56%, III - 19-20%, IV -10%.

"That is, the earlier we detect cancer ... why I say we, because the cancer is not peculiar to the disease symptoms, he hides behind the symptoms of various diseases, and appears, unfortunately, only in the later stages. We are belatedly drawn almost by every second patient: 42-46% of the patients received by us are at the third and fourth stages of the disease. Therefore, we can not get successful results, we, unfortunately, can only extend the life of those patients, proper treatment can only be in the early stages, "- said Mr. Bazikyan.

In Armenia, the most common form of cancer is the lung cancer: more than 1,000 patients per year. In second place is the breast cancer, the third is gastric cancer, then colorectal cancer, followed bycancer of the cervix, uterus, ovaries and prostate cancer. According to the oncologist in recent years has increased the incidence of prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon and uterus cancers.