Cancer is a complex and challenging disease even for those of us who are specialists in it. I am therefore never surprised by certain questions that arise around it – whether a bad blow can cause it, whether super foods or herbal products will cure it and whether everyone with it is ultimately doomed.

Addressing such misconceptions provides an opportunity for better understanding about a disease that takes many forms, requires many changes at the cellular level to progress and whose diagnosis and treatment today is increasingly individualized and successful.

Some common cancer misconceptions:

Various cancers run in my family so I am going to end up with some type of cancer no matter how I take care of myself.

Do not assume there is a predisposition for cancer in your family or that you have inherited that predisposition. Cancer can run in families. Sometimes this is just a happenstance, other times there is a tendency for a specific cancer, but the tendency may be just a little more than average risk and not related to a gene that is broken.

Talk to your doctor. It is not a given that you will develop cancer because other members in your family have cancer.

Preventative screenings for cancer are not that important as medical experts have debated how often they are needed, and they can result in false positives.

Cancer screenings can result in false positives (the test is suggestive, but no cancer is present), but screenings for breast, cervical, colorectal and more recently lung cancers can be critically important to reduce cancer-caused death.

Not all early detection tests for cancer reduce deaths, and not necessarily in all patients. Patients should discuss with their primary care provider which screening tests are appropriate for them, and when and how frequently they should be performed.

A person’s lifestyle is the main cause of their cancer.

There can be a certain amount of guilt associated with cancer. People ask: “How did this happen to me?” Certain lifestyles can contribute to the risk for cancer, but actually developing it is a matter of bad luck even for those at higher risk.

Recent studies of molecular abnormalities in a range of cancers suggest that two-thirds of mutations in genes that lead to a cell becoming cancerous are due to random changes resulting when the cancer cell divides to reproduce itself, while 29 percent were due to environmental and lifestyle effects (including tobacco use). Only five percent were estimated to be the result of an inherited predisposition.

Taking lots of dietary supplements will cure cancer as will eating super foods.

Current research demonstrates that changing eating habits will neither get rid of nor slow the growth of cancer once it is established.

Surgery can make cancer worse.

Prior to the advanced imaging techniques currently available, patients had to undergo surgery as the only way to evaluate symptoms related to abdominal cancer. During the operation, the cancer was found, too frequently, to be advanced and incurable. Thus, the association with a patient who soon died of their cancer and the surgery that diagnosed it, but did not accelerate the process, was established in the minds of family members. This is the origin of this misconception.

Today’s scans and imaging and much less invasive surgery are used to diagnose cancer, and at a much earlier time.

Studies have concluded that hair dyes cause cancer.

I get asked this about every six weeks. Hair dyes appear to have no impact on most people’s risk for cancer, nor do antiperspirants and deodorants.

People become too old to receive cancer treatment.

We try not to make the judgment regarding the appropriateness of cancer treatment merely based on age. Some people may be too old, but this is most often based on the rest of their health, state of frailty and overall energy level. Rather than saying, “You are 88 and we are not going to treat your cancer,” we would evaluate that person’s overall health and try to understand his or her own goals for treatment. It is a two-way conversation.

Cancer is ultimately a death sentence.

Most cancer patients are cured. Today, among adults, the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined is approximately 68 percent (81 percent for all childhood cancers), while back in 1975, the five-year survival rate for all adult cancers was 48.7 percent. Of course, we may have to do some treatment — surgery, radiation, drugs — to get there.

If a patient cannot be cured, modern cancer care can achieve longer survivals and, if carefully applied, better quality of life. In addition, the rates of new cases of cancer have fallen on average 1.0 percent each year of the last 10 years, while death rates have fallen on average 1.5 percent a year from 2004 through 2013.

Dr. Wilson C. Mertens is vice president, medical director Cancer Services Baystate Regional Cancer Program. This column, written by various Baystate cancer specialists, appears monthly.