what is cancer ?

Question

how does it destroy ur body and what does those thereapies do?

Answer 1

What Is Cancer?
Cancer is actually a group of many related diseases that all have to do with cells. Cells are the very small units that make up all living things, including the human body. There are billions of cells in each person's body.

Cancer happens when cells that are not normal grow and spread very fast. Normal body cells grow and divide and know to stop growing. Over time, they also die. Unlike these normal cells, cancer cells just continue to grow and divide out of control and don't die.

Cancer cells usually group or clump together to form tumors (say: too-mers). A growing tumor becomes a lump of cancer cells that can destroy the normal cells around the tumor and damage the body's healthy tissues. This can make someone very sick.

Sometimes cancer cells break away from the original tumor and travel to other areas of the body, where they keep growing and can go on to form new tumors. This is how cancer spreads. The spread of a tumor to a new place in the body is called metastasis (say: meh-tas-tuh-sis).

Causes of Cancer
You probably know a kid who had chickenpox - maybe even you. But you probably don't know any kids who've had cancer. If you packed a large football stadium with kids, probably only one child in that stadium would have cancer.

Doctors aren't sure why some people get cancer and others don't. They do know that cancer is not contagious. You can't catch cancer from someone else who has it. Cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are. So don't be afraid of other kids - or anyone else - with cancer. You can talk to, play with, and hug someone with cancer.

Kids can't get cancer from anything they do either. Some kids think that a bump on the head causes brain cancer or that bad people get cancer. This isn't true! Kids don't do anything wrong to get cancer. But some unhealthy habits, especially cigarette smoking or drinking too much alcohol every day, can make you a lot more likely to get cancer when you become an adult.

Finding Out About Cancer
It can take a while for a doctor to figure out a kid has cancer. That's because the symptoms cancer can cause - weight loss, fevers, swollen glands, or feeling overly tired or sick for a while - are usually not caused by cancer. When a kid has these problems, it's often cased by something less serious, like an infection. With medical testing, the doctor can figure out what's causing the trouble.

If the doctor suspects cancer, he or she can do tests to figure out if that's the problem. A doctor might order X-rays and blood tests and recommend the person go to see an oncologist (say: on-kah-luh-jist). An oncologist is a doctor who takes care of and treats cancer patients. The oncologist will likely run other tests to find out if someone really has cancer. If so, tests can determine what kind of cancer it is and if it has spread to other parts of the body. Based on the results, the doctor will decide the best way to treat it.

One test that an oncologist (or a surgeon) may perform is a biopsy (say: by-op-see). During a biopsy, a piece of tissue is removed from a tumor or a place in the body where cancer is suspected, like the bone marrow. Don't worry - someone getting this test will get special medicine to keep him or her comfortable during the biopsy. After the sample is collected, it will be examined under a microscope for cancer cells. The sooner cancer is found and treatment begins, the better someone's chances are for a full recovery and cure.

Treating Cancer Carefully
Cancer is treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation - or sometimes a combination of these treatments. The choice of treatment depends on:

the type of cancer someone has (the kind of abnormal cells causing the cancer)
the stage of the tumor (meaning how much the cancer has spread within the body, if at all)
Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer. Three out of every five people with cancer will have an operation to remove the cancer. During surgery, the doctor tries to take out as many cancer cells as possible. Some healthy cells or tissue may also be removed to make sure that all the cancer is gone.

Chemotherapy (say: kee-mo-ther-uh-pee) is the use of anti-cancer medicines (drugs) to treat cancer. These medicines are sometimes taken as a pill, but are usually given through a special intravenous (say: in-truh-vee-nus) line, also called an IV. An IV is a tiny catheter (straw-like tube) that is put into a vein through someone's skin, usually on the arm. The catheter is attached to a bag that holds the medicine. The medicine flows from the bag into a vein, which puts the medicine into the blood, where it can travel throughout the body and attack cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is usually given over a number of weeks to months. Often, a permanent catheter is placed under the skin into a larger blood vessel of the upper chest. This way, a person can easily get several courses of chemotherapy and other medicines through this catheter without having a new IV needle put in. The catheter remains under the skin until all the cancer treatment is completed.

Radiation (say: ray-dee-ay-shun) therapy uses high-energy waves, such as X-rays (invisible waves that can pass through most parts of the body), to damage and destroy cancer cells. It can cause tumors to shrink and even go away completely. Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Many people with cancer find it goes away after receiving radiation treatments.

With both chemotherapy and radiation, kids may experience side effects. A side effect is an extra problem that's caused by the treatment. Radiation and anti-cancer drugs are very good at destroying cancer cells, but unfortunately they also destroy healthy cells. This can cause problems such as loss of appetite, tiredness, vomiting, or hair loss. With radiation, a person might have red or irritated skin in the area that's being treated. But all these problems go away and hair grows back after the treatment is over. During the treatment, there are medicines that can help a kid feel better.

While treatment is still going on, a kid might not be able to attend school or be around crowds of people - the kid needs to rest and can't risk getting infections, such as the flu, when he or she already isn't feeling well.

Getting Better
Remission (say: ree-mih-shun) is a great word for anyone who has cancer. It means all signs of cancer are gone from the body. After surgery or treatment with radiation or chemotherapy, a doctor will then do tests to see if the cancer is still there. If there are no signs of cancer, then the kid is in remission.

Remission is the goal when any kid with cancer goes to the hospital for treatment. Sometimes, this means additional chemotherapy might be needed for a while to keep cancer cells from coming back. And luckily, for many kids, continued remission is the very happy end of their cancer experience.

hope this helps a bit

Answer 2

It starts with a damaged cell or cells rapidly growing and dividing. The initial damage can be caused by many factors. Maybe enviromental things such a cigarette smoke, radiation, alcohol, and many times a virus that has attacked the immune system, or even a hereditary cause. any ways, the cell damage occurs to the DNA, transforming it into a malignant cell. It then grows, divides, and spreads very rapidly. treatment for cancer usually involves surgery(removal of tumor or affected area), and chemotherapy and/or radiation. This can be very hard on the body, Chemo therepy and radiation not only kill the bad cells, but also the healthy cells, so the person feels very drained of energy, maybe nauseated, etc... usually after treatment is over, the normal cells replenish themselves back to normal. to answer the question how does cancer destroy your body: the cancer cells spread and take over the healthy ones. It depends on where the cancer is on how it will specificaly affect the body, an example would be cancer in the colon: you might have no symptoms at all, or you might have bleeding from the rectum, or abdominal pain. Lung cancer, you would probably cough up blood or just cough a lot. There is usually a low blood count with most cancers.

Answer 3

Cancer is a process where the cells deviates from the DNA pattern. Some may be good and some may be bad. ( We see only bad ones) This could be an evolutionary process. Evolutionary process is unlimited number of trials over a vast period of time. Some cancer patients will survive and multiply. Then all the humans will have that modification in their DNA pattern included.

Answer 4

cancer is the uncontrollable growth of cells that are no longer anything like the normal human body's cells
they destroy by taking up space (tumors) resulting in blockage, taking up food and oxygen from the neighbouring cells etc..

therapies usually are aimed at destrying the cells.. and hoping the cells just suddenly decide to stop reproducing and become 'dormant' usualy cancer canot be stopped because you cant exactly tell a cell to stop growing uncontrollably

but to what i know scientists are working on something that may one day just tell the cell to do that!

Answer 5

Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. Metastasis is defined as the stage in which cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk tends to increase with age. It is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.

There are many types of cancer. Severity of symptoms depends on the site and character of the malignancy and whether there is metastasis. A definitive diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of tissue by a pathologist. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for the type of cancer pathology. Drugs that target specific cancers already exist for several cancers. If untreated, cancers may eventually cause illness and death, though this is not always the case.

The unregulated growth that characterizes cancer is caused by damage to DNA, resulting in mutations to genes that encode for proteins controlling cell division. Many mutation events may be required to transform a normal cell into a malignant cell. These mutations can be caused by chemicals or physical agents called carcinogens, by close exposure to radioactive materials, or by certain viruses that can insert their DNA into the human genome. Mutations occur spontaneously, or are passed down generations as a result of germ line mutations.

Many forms of cancer are associated with exposure to environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, radiation, alcohol and certain viruses. While some of these can be avoided, there is no known way to entirely avoid the disease, and public health and vaccination programs are also important on a global scale.

Answer 6

cancer are abnormal cells that destroy other healthy cells. What the therapies do is that they inject poison into the body to destroy the cancer cells. Our body reacts to this by vomiting. this poison is responsible for the hair loss.

Answer 7

Cancer is non-controlled dividing of cells. Cells divide very rapidly and grow into a tumour.

There are genes in our cells that are responsible for controlling cancer. 'Onco gene' gives order for dividing while 'cancer controlling gene' gives order for stopping.

It is found that chemotherapy is not destroying the cancer cells directly...they actually cause them to release a kind of chemical that stops them from dividing and 'suicide'.

Answer 8

Cancer is rapidly growing uncrontrollable cells. Therapy kills and potentially mutates the cells using radiation.

Answer 9

wat i know is it is not cureable...