What is Cancer and How Can it Be Treated?
Cancer is a disease in which your body’s cells grow out of control and form lumps or tumors. Cancer can happen anywhere in the body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, your cells grow and divide to make new cells as the old ones wear out or become damaged. But sometimes a normal cell develops a mistake in its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or blue prints inside the cell that tell it how to work. These mistakes are mutations, and they can cause the cell to grow out of control and divide without stopping. If the mutant cells keep dividing, they can make more abnormal cells that may also become cancerous. Cancer cells can also spread from one part of the body to other parts, where they can start growing and forming more tumors.
There are many different types of cancer, and each has its own causes. Some people are more likely to get cancer than others because of the way their genes are arranged. Other causes of cancer include things that happen in the environment, such as pollution or exposure to certain chemicals. These can raise your chances of having cancer by damaging your DNA or changing the way your cells work. Other risks include having a lot of alcohol or being overweight.
Several ways of treating cancer are available. Surgery, for example, removes part or all of a cancerous mass. Chemotherapy drugs can kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. Radiation therapy uses high-energy waves or particles to destroy cancerous cells. And hormone therapies can block the production of certain hormones that fuel some types of cancer.
As scientists learn more about the biology of cancer, they are finding more ways to treat it. These treatments are getting better and more effective. They’re also more targeted, so they affect only the cancer cells and not healthy surrounding tissue.
If you have cancer, your care team will teach you about treatment options. But you can also find information from other sources, such as the Internet or friends and family. Be sure to check the source of the information. It’s best to get your information from health professionals who know you and are familiar with your medical history.
In the 1800s, researchers tried to make tumors in laboratory animals by exposing them to irritating chemicals. But these experiments didn’t produce the kind of cancerous growths that doctors now recognize as the hallmarks of cancer. Instead, scientists now believe that cancer starts when certain cells accumulate genetic changes over long periods of time.
These genetic changes can lead to cancer when the cell is in a very favorable environment. This environment can be physical, such as the availability of nutrients or oxygen; chemical, such as the presence of certain chemicals; or biological, such as a lack of a natural enemy or an immune system that would normally eliminate mutated or cancerous cells. Cancer cells can take advantage of these conditions to evolve and eventually grow into lethal phenotypes that will ultimately cause death (15).
Cancer is a disease in which your body’s cells grow out of control and form lumps or tumors. Cancer can happen anywhere in the body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, your cells grow and divide to make new cells as the old ones wear out or become damaged. But sometimes a normal cell develops a mistake in its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or blue prints inside the cell that tell it how to work. These mistakes are mutations, and they can cause the cell to grow out of control and divide without stopping. If the mutant cells keep dividing, they can make more abnormal cells that may also become cancerous. Cancer cells can also spread from one part of the body to other parts, where they can start growing and forming more tumors. There are many different types of cancer, and each has its own causes. Some people are more likely to get cancer than others because of the way their genes are arranged. Other causes of cancer include things that happen in the environment, such as pollution or exposure to certain chemicals. These can raise your chances of having cancer by damaging your DNA or changing the way your cells work. Other risks include having a lot of alcohol or being overweight. Several ways of treating cancer are available. Surgery, for example, removes part or all of a cancerous mass. Chemotherapy drugs can kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. Radiation therapy uses high-energy waves or particles to destroy cancerous cells. And hormone therapies can block the production of certain hormones that fuel some types of cancer. As scientists learn more about the biology of cancer, they are finding more ways to treat it. These treatments are getting better and more effective. They’re also more targeted, so they affect only the cancer cells and not healthy surrounding tissue. If you have cancer, your care team will teach you about treatment options. But you can also find information from other sources, such as the Internet or friends and family. Be sure to check the source of the information. It’s best to get your information from health professionals who know you and are familiar with your medical history. In the 1800s, researchers tried to make tumors in laboratory animals by exposing them to irritating chemicals. But these experiments didn’t produce the kind of cancerous growths that doctors now recognize as the hallmarks of cancer. Instead, scientists now believe that cancer starts when certain cells accumulate genetic changes over long periods of time. These genetic changes can lead to cancer when the cell is in a very favorable environment. This environment can be physical, such as the availability of nutrients or oxygen; chemical, such as the presence of certain chemicals; or biological, such as a lack of a natural enemy or an immune system that would normally eliminate mutated or cancerous cells. Cancer cells can take advantage of these conditions to evolve and eventually grow into lethal phenotypes that will ultimately cause death (15).