Cancer

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is a disease in which cells begin to grow uncontrollably, and then, spread to other parts of the body. 

Cancer can start in nearly every part of the human body.  The human body is composed of trillions of individual cells. Human cells naturally grow and multiply through a series of events known as cell division.  The body forms new cells as they are needed. As cells grow old or suffer damage they die of and new cells are created to take their place.  This is all a natural order of events.  This process begins at conception and continue on until the end of life.

Sometimes this process creates abnormal cells.  At other times cells that are damaged by environmental impacts from toxins or chemicals or because of errors in DNA replication or other failures of this intricate process.  The abnormal and/or damaged cells can then grow and multiply.  When this abnormal set of circumstances takes place these abnormal and/or damaged cells may form tumors.  Tumors are lumps of tissue composed of the abnormal cells.  These Tumors can be cancerous, which is malignant, or non-cancerous, which is benign.  If they are cancerous they can spread throughout the body into neighboring tissues and organs or transit the body to other locations.  The fact that these cells can spread and impact other organs and cell sets makes them dangerous.  They interfere with the normal operations of the cells which are operating normally.  As they grow in number they can impact organs and other tissues in the human body.

When the tumors spread from one location to another in the human body this process is called metastatis.  These cancerous tumors are also referred to as malignant tumors. Cancers often form solid tumors of various sizes and shapes, but other cancers, like those of the blood which include leukemias generally do not behave in this manner.

Benign tumors are the type that do not spread into nearby tissues and organs. When these types of tumors are removed they usually don’t grow back.  Cancerous tumors sometimes do grow back. Benign tumors are often found to be quite large.  Because of their size and growth some can cause serious symptoms including life threatening.  Benign tumors in the brain, for example can disrupt quality of life as well as be extremely dangerous unless treated to decrease their size or remove them altogether.

Cancer is a disease to be aware of by identifying symptoms and visiting your doctor on a regular basis.