Cancer – What is It and How Can It Be Treated?
Cancer is a disease that happens when abnormal cells grow too quickly and don’t die when they should. They can spread to other parts of the body where they can damage or destroy healthy cells. Cancer is sometimes a very serious disease but it can also be treated and cured. Cancer can affect anyone. It most often happens to older people. It can happen in many different places in the body and in all types of tissues. It can be found in the skin, lung, blood, bones and brain. Cancer isn’t contagious. You can’t catch it from other people, and you can’t get it by touching someone who has it.
Cancer happens when certain genes make mistakes and keep dividing without stopping. This makes more and more abnormal cells that can eventually form a tumor (say: TOO-mer). Cancer usually starts in just one part of the body, but it can start in any kind of tissue or cell.
Normally, when cells need to divide, they get signals from outside the cell that tell them when and how to divide. These signals come from growth factors, cell-cell adhesion molecules and extracellular matrix components. Cancer cells develop a different way of receiving these signals and no longer obey them. They also have more mutations (say: MUT-tur-uns) than normal cells. This means that cancer cells are genetically very different from normal cells.
Each cancer type is very different and each person’s cancer is different, too. This is why it is important to find out what kind of cancer you have and the stage of your cancer. It helps your doctors plan treatment and give you the best chance of a cure.
Doctors classify cancers by where they start and whether or not they have spread. They use a staging system to describe how far the cancer has spread, using Roman numerals from I to IV.
There are lots of ways to treat cancer, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Many types of cancer can be prevented by changing some lifestyle habits like staying a healthy weight, not smoking or using other forms of tobacco, drinking less alcohol and getting more exercise.
Surgery is the oldest cancer treatment and still the most common. During surgery, your doctor tries to remove as much of the cancer as possible. They may need to remove some healthy cells and tissue to make sure the cancer is completely gone.
Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells and stop them from growing, dividing and making more cancer cells. It is usually given over a period of weeks to months and can be combined with other treatments. Doctors can use chemotherapy before surgery to shrink a large tumor and make the operation easier or after surgery to help prevent the cancer from coming back, called adjuvant chemotherapy.
A newer type of treatment is immunotherapy. It involves giving medication to “wake up” your own immune system so it can fight the cancer cells. This is being studied in clinical trials and may be useful for treating some cancers.
Cancer is a disease that happens when abnormal cells grow too quickly and don’t die when they should. They can spread to other parts of the body where they can damage or destroy healthy cells. Cancer is sometimes a very serious disease but it can also be treated and cured. Cancer can affect anyone. It most often happens to older people. It can happen in many different places in the body and in all types of tissues. It can be found in the skin, lung, blood, bones and brain. Cancer isn’t contagious. You can’t catch it from other people, and you can’t get it by touching someone who has it. Cancer happens when certain genes make mistakes and keep dividing without stopping. This makes more and more abnormal cells that can eventually form a tumor (say: TOO-mer). Cancer usually starts in just one part of the body, but it can start in any kind of tissue or cell. Normally, when cells need to divide, they get signals from outside the cell that tell them when and how to divide. These signals come from growth factors, cell-cell adhesion molecules and extracellular matrix components. Cancer cells develop a different way of receiving these signals and no longer obey them. They also have more mutations (say: MUT-tur-uns) than normal cells. This means that cancer cells are genetically very different from normal cells. Each cancer type is very different and each person’s cancer is different, too. This is why it is important to find out what kind of cancer you have and the stage of your cancer. It helps your doctors plan treatment and give you the best chance of a cure. Doctors classify cancers by where they start and whether or not they have spread. They use a staging system to describe how far the cancer has spread, using Roman numerals from I to IV. There are lots of ways to treat cancer, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Many types of cancer can be prevented by changing some lifestyle habits like staying a healthy weight, not smoking or using other forms of tobacco, drinking less alcohol and getting more exercise. Surgery is the oldest cancer treatment and still the most common. During surgery, your doctor tries to remove as much of the cancer as possible. They may need to remove some healthy cells and tissue to make sure the cancer is completely gone. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells and stop them from growing, dividing and making more cancer cells. It is usually given over a period of weeks to months and can be combined with other treatments. Doctors can use chemotherapy before surgery to shrink a large tumor and make the operation easier or after surgery to help prevent the cancer from coming back, called adjuvant chemotherapy. A newer type of treatment is immunotherapy. It involves giving medication to “wake up” your own immune system so it can fight the cancer cells. This is being studied in clinical trials and may be useful for treating some cancers.