What is Cancer?

 

What is cancer?

When we hear the word cancer we come up with the thoughts of a incurable disease and many times some specific terms as “blood cancer”, “bone cancer” or “lung cancer” or may be a term as “cancerous cell” but what actually cancer is, does it happens only in humans, we are going to answer all these questions in this article to spread a basic knowledge about cancer.

 

Again... What is cancer?

In our body new cells get produced and these new cells then divide into more and more cells but after some time these cells get older and older and eventually stop dividing, it’s the time when our immune system automatically kill those cells to make the space for newer once. But in cancer there is some abnormal cells get produced and these abnormal cells grow and divide uncontrollably, and this is what makes cancer so hard to cure.

 

What are the most common forms of cancer?

Cancer can occur anywhere in the body although breast cancer and the prostate cancer is the most common cancer in women and men respectively. Lung cancer and colorectal cancer affect both men and women in large numbers.

There are five main categories of cancer:

• Carcinomas begin in the skin or tissues that line the internal organs.
• Sarcomas develop in the bone, cartilage, fat, muscle or other connective tissues.
• Leukemia begins in the blood and bone marrow.
• Lymphomas start in the immune system.
• Central nervous system cancers develop in the brain and spinal cord.

Now the question arises how cancer can be treated?

How is cancer treated?

Treatments depend on the type and stage of cancer, if the cancer has spread your general health. Then the main goal is to kill as many cancer cells while reducing damage to the normal cells nearby. Advancement in technology made this possible.

The three main treatments are:

• Surgery: directly removing the tumor
• Chemotherapy: using chemicals to kill cancer cells
• Radiation therapy: using X-rays to kill cancer cells

 The same cancer type in one individual is very different from that cancer in another individual. Within a single type of cancer, such as breast cancer, researchers are discovering subtypes that each requires a different treatment approach.