What is Cancer|Cancer Information.
Why you should know about cancer.
Cancer is one thing, you do not want to be associated with. You dread it, you hate it, you do not want it and yet you want to know all about it. In a way, knowing about cancer will do two good things in your life:
1) It will make you avoid things that cause cancer, thereby making your living habits more healthy, and
2) If you happen to be associated with other health disorders like diabetes or hypertension or arthritis or have survived a heart attack, you will realize how lucky you are and not sink into an unwanted mindset, which people with these disorders tend to do.
3) And there is third thing though. You will want to start believing in God. For, only faith in Him will give you the strength, at times like these.
This reaction from Kylie Minogue, when diagnosed with breast cancer, sums it all up:
“The moment my doctor told me, I went silent. My mum and dad were with me. Then we all fell to pieces.”
Cancer Cells.
A cell is basic unit block of all living creatures. During your life, body cells are frequently reproduced and replaced by processes called mitosis or meiosis, depending on the types of cells. This process takes 30 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the process of cell formation. This is how our body cells live their life cycle in our body.
But sometimes, abnormally, these cells exhibit an uncontrolled growth. They start to multiply very rapidly and begin to invade and destroy neighboring tissues. This abnormal condition is called cancer or malignancy. These cancer cells do not die, but continue to grow and proliferate rapidly. Why this happens, is explained in Cause of Cancer.
Picture showing mutation of normal cell to cancer cell.
Click on picture to enlarge.
These abnormally growing cells clump together and form a growth or tumor, except of course in blood cancer. When this growth exhibits characteristics of cancer, it is called a malignant growth or a malignant tumor.
However, not all tumors are malignant. The non cancerous or non malignant tumors are called benign tumors. They do not grow rapidly like malignant tumors and they do not invade the neighboring tissues.
The rapidly growing cancer cells form their own blood vessels to get nutrition and feed voraciously on account of their abnormal rapid growth, depriving the rest of the body of nourishment. These rapidly growing cancer cells can also spread to other parts of the body. This is called metastasis. You can read about that inHow Cancer Spreads.
How Cancer Cells differ from Normal Cells.
Characteristics of normal cells.
- Reproduce with exactly the same characteristics.
- They stay localized in exactly the same place.
- Once damaged, they die or commit ” suicide.” This is called Apoptosis.
- They stop reproducing at the programmed time.
- They are function oriented.
Characteristics of Cancer Cells.
- They never stop reproducing.
- They do not stay localized in one place.
- They are primitive, that is, they do not perform any cell function except that of multiplying.
- Cancer cells may die but the reproduction of cancer cells is far more than cancer cell deaths.
Picture showing growth of normal and cancer cells.
Grades of Cancer.
Cancer may be of a lower grade or a higher grade. Cancer cells of lower grade cancer are somewhat similar to normal cells. A lower grade cancer spreads slowly, while a higher grade cancer spreads rapidly. Grades of cancer are specified with numbers such as 1,2 and 3 where 3 represents cancer of higher grade and 1 specifies cancer of lower grade. The grade of cancer will help your doctor to decide on the type of Treatment for Cancer.
Further information on cancer is explained in the following posts:
3) Causes and Risk Factors of Cancer.
4) Symptoms and Signs of Cancer. – —
5) Early Warning Signs of Cancer. . .
10) Radiology Tests for Cancer.
11) Cancer Biopsy.
- Cancer Surgery.
- Radiation for Cancer
- Side effects of Radiation
- Chemotherapy.
- Side Effects of Chemotherapy
- Hormone therapy for Cancer.
- Immunotherapy for Cancer.
- Gene Therapy for Cancer.
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