What is cancer?

The term ‘cancer’ refers to any one of a huge number of maladies in which a cluster of cells show an uncharacteristic development with an uncontainable division beyond the standard parameters. They have the aptitude to intervene and destroy nearby body tissues. Cancer cells have the capability to spread all over the body through lymph and blood, therefore abolishing the healthy tissues. All the cancers start in the elementary unit of life i.e. the cell. Normal cells in a body have the capability to grow and divide in an orderly way to create more cells required to keep the body healthy. When the cells become timeworn or impaired, they expire and get substituted with new cells. If and when this standard procedure gets disturbed, cancer starts settings its foot in. In a usual process, old cells expire after a specific period of time and are substituted by new cells. But in a tumorous state, new cells continue increasing while old cells do not expire when they should therefore resulting in a mass of tissue identified as a tumor.

Types of cancers

There are two forms of tumors:

• Benign tumors: A benign growth is not cancerous. It can often be taken out and generally does not come back. These cells grow in a restricted, non-aggressive way. They do not attack the neighboring tissues and neither spread to other portions of the body, i.e., do not metastasize.
• Malignant tumors: A malignant growth is tumorous. Cells in these cancers attack the adjoining tissues and spread to other portions of the body.

Causes of cancer

There are some risk factors which may make you vulnerable to cancer development such as:

• Ageing
• Tobacco
• Sunlight
• Ionizing radiation
• Some chemicals and other materials
• Some viruses and bacteria
• Some hormones
• Family past of cancer
• Liquor
• Poor diet, deficiency of physical activity or being overheavy

Maximum of these risk factors can be sidestepped, while others such as family history cannot be escaped. If possible, steps can be taken in steering clear of the acknowledged risk factors.

Myths cleared

Bear in mind that:

• Not everything triggers cancer.
• Cancer is not instigated by an injury like a bump or bruise.
• Cancer is not transmissible. Although being infested with certain viruses or bacteria might upturn the risk of some kinds of cancer, no one can catch cancer from another individual.
• Having one or more risk elements does not mean that you will get tumor. Maximum individuals who have risk factors never develop any tumor.

Is it curable?

Lots of individuals think cancer is incurable but it is not factual. There are heaps of new developments in cancer treatments of late which made majority of cancers remediable. Timely detection and appropriate treatment by cancer experts is can upsurge probabilities of comprehensive cure. There are four phases of cancer curability:

• Stage I 90 – 100%
• Stage II 70 – 80%
• Stage III 40 – 60%
• Stage IV 0 – 40%

So, early detection and appropriate treatment can cure a cancer patient successfully.

Cancer screening

Cancer screening targets to identify cancer before symptoms are exhibited. This might implicate blood tests, urine tests, other examinations or medical imaging. The advantages of screening in terms of cancer deterrence, timely detection and succeeding treatment must be pondered against any damage.

Treatments of cancer

There are three varieties of treatments for cancer:

Surgery

In this modality, tumorous portion is removed physically. This is most effective method of treatment.

Chemotherapy

In this treatment, medications are given via blood vessels to slaughter the tumor cells.

Radiotherapy

In this style of treatment, tumor cells in the affected portion of body are demolished using radiation.