Cancer - A Companion of One out of Every Three of Us

One in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer during our life. The disease tends to affect older people - but can strike at any time.
Excluding certain skin cancers, there were more than 270,000 new cases of the disease in 2001 - and the rate is increasing by about 1% a year.
Some cancer, such as breast, are becoming more common, while new cases of lung cancer fall away due to the drop in the number of smokers.
However, while the overall number of new cancers is not falling, the good news is that successful treatment rates for many of the most common types are improving rapidly.

What is cancer?
The human body is made up of hundreds of different types of cell, all of which behave differently. A cell in the kidney, although it contains the same genetic information as a brain cell, performs a completely separate role. Cancer happens when a tiny part of the cell's mechanism goes wrong.

What is a cancer cell?
And just as there are hundreds of types of cell, there are hundreds of types of cancer, few of which can be treated in the same way. Every cell's life is mapped out in advance by coded instructions, called genes, held in its nucleus. These tell it how to behave, when to reproduce by dividing - and when to die.
When the instructions relating to cell multiplication and dying are wrong, the cell may start dividing uncontrollably, and not die when it should. In addition, the cancer may not follow the usual instructions that keep cells spaced out properly. Every time the cell divides, the "bad" instruction is reproduced, so the out-of-control multiplication carries on. As these cells can be multiplying more rapidly than healthy cells, the cancer cells can form a growing lump in the body called a tumor or a lesion.
As this gets larger, it can even grow its own vessels to keep it supplied with blood. A benign, or non-cancerous tumor shares this uncontrolled growth, but will not generally invade neighboring tissues and damage them.

Tumors which do this are "malignant", or "cancerous".
The type of cell in which the cancer starts will generally determine the speed at which it grows, and its resistance to treatment, although there are many variations. Cancers harm health in a number of ways. The very size of the tumor can interfere with nearby organs, or ducts which carry important chemicals, causing pain or other symptoms. For example, a tumor on the pancreas can grow to block the bile duct, leading to the patient developing obstructive jaundice. And a brain tumor can push on important parts of the brain, causing blackouts, fits and other problems. Even benign tumors can cause these problems if located in the wrong place. When a cancer invade nearby tissues, they can cause bleeding from damaged blood vessels, and stop the organ which they are invading from working properly.

 

What happens if it spreads?
As a tumor grows, cells can break off and start growing on adjacent tissues and organs. For example, if a bowel cancer has spread through the wall of the bowel itself, it can start growing on the bladder. Cells can also enter the bloodstream and travel to distant organs, such as the lungs or brain. The technical term for this is "metastasis".
When new tumors form on distant organs, they behave like the original tumor - so a bowel cancer cell growing in the lung will not be lung cancer.
Once other organs are involved, then any symptoms of the cancer can get worse. However, it may be some time before a growing cancer in certain parts of the body produces symptoms that the patient can notice. Once a cancer has started to spread beyond its original site, then the chances of a cure often begin to fall, as it becomes more difficult to treat.

How is it treated?
There are three principal ways of treating cancer. The first is surgery, normally an operation to remove the cancerous growth, and, depending on its type, nearby tissues and organs. A cancer patient may first undergo a minor operation called a biopsy to take a small sample of the cancer for analysis. The surgeon will try to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but sometimes extra treatment will be needed.
This could either take the form of radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or a combination of treatments.

Cancer Prevention - Yes, it is possible!

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You and may not be able to defeat cancer but YOU AND I CAN minimize the risk getting cancer.