Cancer – What It Is and How It Is Treated
Cancer is a disease that begins in the cells of your body. Cells are the basic building blocks of your body, and they make new cells as your old ones die. When something goes wrong in this process, your cells continue to grow out of control and crowd out normal cells. The resulting mass is called a tumor. Some types of cancer grow and spread fast, while others grow more slowly or do not grow at all. Cancers are also different in how they respond to treatment.
About 39.5 percent of men and women in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their lives. Cancer can cause pain, swelling, and changes in your appearance and behavior. Cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and/or other medicines. Usually, 2 or more treatments are needed to get rid of the cancer completely.
Scientists are working hard to improve cancer care and find ways to prevent it. Research into personalized medicine and gene therapy holds great promise for the future. Some people with cancer choose to participate in clinical trials to try promising new treatments that may help them live longer and feel better.
The causes of cancer are not yet known. But scientists do know that things like cigarette smoke, UV light from the sun, and certain viruses can increase your risk for developing cancer. And we know that some genes can change over time and lead to faulty instructions for cellular growth. These faulty instructions, called mutations, can make cells grow and divide without control. Some of these mutations are passed down from parents to their children, and some happen randomly in the course of life.
For more than 20 years, scientists have studied how cancer develops. They started by finding that some cells that grow and spread abnormally are called precancerous cells. They then looked for factors, such as chemicals or radiation, that could cause these precancerous cells to multiply and develop into cancer cells.
They found that some types of cancer develop when genetic mutations occur in cells that are dividing to create new tissue for the body. They also discovered that some types of cancer spread from the part of the body where they first started to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or brain.
These findings gave scientists a better picture of how cancer develops. They found that cancer does not develop all at once, but over a long period of time as an accumulation of many molecular changes. Each of these changes enables precancerous cells to acquire some of the characteristics that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.
Some cancers begin in blood vessels or nerve cells. These cells can then travel through the bloodstream to other areas of the body and form new cancerous cells there. Cancer that has spread to distant sites in the body is called metastatic cancer.
Cancer is a disease that begins in the cells of your body. Cells are the basic building blocks of your body, and they make new cells as your old ones die. When something goes wrong in this process, your cells continue to grow out of control and crowd out normal cells. The resulting mass is called a tumor. Some types of cancer grow and spread fast, while others grow more slowly or do not grow at all. Cancers are also different in how they respond to treatment. About 39.5 percent of men and women in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their lives. Cancer can cause pain, swelling, and changes in your appearance and behavior. Cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and/or other medicines. Usually, 2 or more treatments are needed to get rid of the cancer completely. Scientists are working hard to improve cancer care and find ways to prevent it. Research into personalized medicine and gene therapy holds great promise for the future. Some people with cancer choose to participate in clinical trials to try promising new treatments that may help them live longer and feel better. The causes of cancer are not yet known. But scientists do know that things like cigarette smoke, UV light from the sun, and certain viruses can increase your risk for developing cancer. And we know that some genes can change over time and lead to faulty instructions for cellular growth. These faulty instructions, called mutations, can make cells grow and divide without control. Some of these mutations are passed down from parents to their children, and some happen randomly in the course of life. For more than 20 years, scientists have studied how cancer develops. They started by finding that some cells that grow and spread abnormally are called precancerous cells. They then looked for factors, such as chemicals or radiation, that could cause these precancerous cells to multiply and develop into cancer cells. They found that some types of cancer develop when genetic mutations occur in cells that are dividing to create new tissue for the body. They also discovered that some types of cancer spread from the part of the body where they first started to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or brain. These findings gave scientists a better picture of how cancer develops. They found that cancer does not develop all at once, but over a long period of time as an accumulation of many molecular changes. Each of these changes enables precancerous cells to acquire some of the characteristics that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Some cancers begin in blood vessels or nerve cells. These cells can then travel through the bloodstream to other areas of the body and form new cancerous cells there. Cancer that has spread to distant sites in the body is called metastatic cancer.