Cancer, in its many different forms and types is a disease most of us fear. The different types of treatments are not easy to go through, physically and mentally and their success rates aren't always high. Among factors that can affect the treatment's odds and chances to beat the disease, is the extremely important factor of early detection.

No matter what cancer type it is, early detection always increases the odds to beat the disease and clear one's body from the cancerous cells or remove the tumor. Early detection is sometimes critical while it often leads to the treatments beginning in the early stages of the cancer, when the chances that the cancer has spread are still low and that the tumor hasn't had a lot of time to grow. If the cancer hasn't spread, treatment can be targeted in a better way with any kind of treatment available (surgery, chemotherapy or radiation to name a few) and thus raise the chances to expel the cancer from the body.

To detect a cancer tumor in or on our body in its early stages, we must be alert to possible cancer symptoms and basically be attentive to our body. We mustn't ignore abnormalities in our body and dismiss them as "nothing", as me must look into what's wrong and make sure it is "nothing".

There are many different cancer symptoms, as there are many different types of cancer. But there are a few symptoms that are universal and most cancers share.

One major symptom is of course an abnormal growth or lump that appears anywhere on your body. If the specific part of the body is not supposed to suddenly grow, this may indicate there is a problem. Woman can feel lumps in their breasts that may indicate there is breast cancer; thyroid cancer manifests as a lump under the skin which you can see and feel in the neck area, lymphoma will make your lymph nodes larger than they normally are. In Melanoma, the cancer will appear on your skin as a lump, a brown spot or a mole suddenly changing.

Another very frequent cancer symptom is abnormal bleeding. Different types of cancer manifests in unexpected bleeding. Bladder, kidney and prostate cancer can cause blood to appear in the urine, colorectal cancer causes blood to appear in the stool and endometrial and cervical cancer can cause abnormal vaginal bleeding, both during menstrual periods and between them. Lung cancer can cause one to cough up blood or for blood to appear in the sputum and leukemia can cause excessively bleeding. Once one is experiencing unusual bleeding, they should have it checked out.

Different types of cancer also cause the universal symptoms of sudden weight loss or weakness and fatigue. Cancer can cause an unplanned drop in your weight for no apparent reason, as it can be accompanied by a loss of appetite, but not necessarily. Most cancers also can cause unexplained weakness and tiredness and one will not understand why.

In addition to general cancer symptoms as mentioned, there is always the subjective symptom of sudden unexplained pain in a certain area of the body. One may experience pain in the pelvis area from prostate, cervical and endometrial cancer. Bladder cancer can cause pain during urination, colorectal will cause pain in the stomach as will pancreatic cancer, lung cancer can cause chest pain, thyroid Cancer can cause pain in the neck and throat and your leukemia may cause bone and joint pain.

It is important to understand that any of these cancer symptoms mentioned above do not mean that anyone experiencing them necessarily has cancer. These are also symptoms that can be caused by different and other conditions then a cancerous tumor. However, if one of these does appear, it is important not to neglect it and have a doctor examine the problem.