Cancer – The Disease That Affects Millions of People
Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people. It can kill them or cause them serious harm, and it can also make it difficult to live a normal life. Many types of cancer can be cured, especially if they are caught early. But, even when it is caught late, many cancers can be controlled with medicine or other treatment.
Your body is made of trillions of cells. These cells are the building blocks of your tissues and organs. Over your lifetime, the cells in your body normally grow and divide as needed. They also change to take on different functions, such as becoming a nerve cell or a muscle cell. This is because of genes, which are long strings of coded messages that tell the cell how to grow and divide. Sometimes a gene changes, or mutations occur, and the cell begins to grow out of control.
As these cells grow and change, they can begin to crowd out normal cells. Then they can start to spread to other parts of the body. This is when you have a cancer.
Early on, cancers were recognized as a disease of uncontrolled growth and spreading. This was based on the observations that tumors grew quickly and seemed to take a “bite” out of the body. In addition, a growing tumor often produced symptoms such as a lump or pain in the body, fevers, skin changes and blood in the urine or stool.
Over time, scientists learned that cancers began as a single abnormal cell. This was a big breakthrough because it explained how cancer could occur in many places in the body and why it might be difficult to treat. It was also the beginning of a new understanding that cancer is not just a disease of genes but rather a process of natural selection.
This means that cancers develop because of changes (mutations) in the genes. It is these mutations that give the cancer cells an advantage in their struggle for survival and to propagate. These mutations can be the result of many things, including damage to genes from toxins or radiation, or from viruses.
The mutated genes allow the cancer cells to grow faster and more easily than normal cells. This advantage is maintained because the mutated cells pass on their characteristics to their offspring. The mutations also lead to the evolution of a lethal phenotype.
The most common cancers are found in the lungs, breasts, colon, stomach and pancreas. There are also many other types of cancer that are less common, and some that can’t be treated at all.
Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people. It can kill them or cause them serious harm, and it can also make it difficult to live a normal life. Many types of cancer can be cured, especially if they are caught early. But, even when it is caught late, many cancers can be controlled with medicine or other treatment. Your body is made of trillions of cells. These cells are the building blocks of your tissues and organs. Over your lifetime, the cells in your body normally grow and divide as needed. They also change to take on different functions, such as becoming a nerve cell or a muscle cell. This is because of genes, which are long strings of coded messages that tell the cell how to grow and divide. Sometimes a gene changes, or mutations occur, and the cell begins to grow out of control. As these cells grow and change, they can begin to crowd out normal cells. Then they can start to spread to other parts of the body. This is when you have a cancer. Early on, cancers were recognized as a disease of uncontrolled growth and spreading. This was based on the observations that tumors grew quickly and seemed to take a “bite” out of the body. In addition, a growing tumor often produced symptoms such as a lump or pain in the body, fevers, skin changes and blood in the urine or stool. Over time, scientists learned that cancers began as a single abnormal cell. This was a big breakthrough because it explained how cancer could occur in many places in the body and why it might be difficult to treat. It was also the beginning of a new understanding that cancer is not just a disease of genes but rather a process of natural selection. This means that cancers develop because of changes (mutations) in the genes. It is these mutations that give the cancer cells an advantage in their struggle for survival and to propagate. These mutations can be the result of many things, including damage to genes from toxins or radiation, or from viruses. The mutated genes allow the cancer cells to grow faster and more easily than normal cells. This advantage is maintained because the mutated cells pass on their characteristics to their offspring. The mutations also lead to the evolution of a lethal phenotype. The most common cancers are found in the lungs, breasts, colon, stomach and pancreas. There are also many other types of cancer that are less common, and some that can’t be treated at all.