Clive James: ‘This carcinoma was starting to look like the alien that erupts from John Hurt’s chest’

When we were kids in quest of a tan, we would lie around forever being cooked by ultra-violet rays, and the results show up around now in the form of skin cancers

Obesity epidemic is fuelling rise in womb cancer, charity warns

Data from Cancer Research UK shows stark increase in proportion of women with disease over 20-year period

The libraries that offer sexual health services and cancer support

Coventry’s Central Library runs health-related events and a mental health drop-in service, reaching people that the NHS can’t

Is it safe to use talcum powder?

The family of a woman in the US who died from ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson baby powder has been awarded damages. So how much of a risk does talc pose?

Household electromagnetic radiation doesn’t make you ill or give you cancer. Here’s why

People suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity are ill. But when you look at the evidence, it’s not electromagnetic radiation that’s the problem

Top 10 books about cancer

Treatment of this cruel disease has advanced hugely in recent years, but writers from Philip Roth to Christopher Hitchens show the awful human cost it still exacts

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi review – thoughtful and poignant

A dying surgeon contemplates his mortality and his vocation in this moving, astute farewell

Cancer patient mother says she would have kept her baby ‘in my tummy’

Heidi Loughlin says she would not have chosen to deliver baby 12 weeks early to undergo chemotherapy had she known daughter would not survive

You don’t have to be vegetarian to think twice about processed meat. At least eating fish is good for you

The World Health Organisation found there was enough evidence to say that salted, cured, fermented or smoked meats were indeed carcinogenic

How crowdfunding became a lifeline for cancer patients struggling with debt

Medications and treatments in the US are some of the most expensive in the world and people are increasingly turning to other options to help pay for it

We cured your mother’s cancer, but your love fixed her broken heart

This Christmas I’d like to write a letter to the daughter of one of my patients – because I could cure her mother’s cancer but only she could ease the greatest pain

Cancer is political – as the argument about its causes shows

New research suggests that environmental factors are responsible for the huge majority of cancers; but opposing studies suggest it’s down to genetics and bad luck. Which you believe may depend on your own philosophy

Should acupuncture be used more widely in the NHS?

A growing body of healthcare practitioners believe acupunture should be offered routinely for more conditions including pain in labour and cancer

Study: pregnant women with cancer can be treated without harming fetus

Chemotherapy and other treatments did not adversely affect the health of their baby when compared with those born to mothers without cancer

Like Jackie Collins, I kept my cancer diagnosis a secret – and I don’t regret it

Keeping her illness from her sister Joan must have been one of the hardest decisions Jackie Collins had ever had to make – I did the same to protect my parents