what is the cancer?

Question

i want to know about illness which is called cancer. and where it appears?and any medicine for it?or the injured will die from it.
i want to know all about cancer but the information should be correct .....

Answer 1

The thought of having cancer can be scary. But what exactly is cancer? And what does it do?

Cancer refers to any one of a large number of diseases characterized by the development of abnormal cells that divide uncontrollably and have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. Cancer can spread its abnormal cells throughout your body.

Being diagnosed with cancer can be frightening. But understanding what's going on inside your body can help you be aware of what's causing your feelings of anxiety. Knowing more about cancer may also help you feel more in control of your disease.


What causes cancer?

Cancer is caused by damage (mutations) in your DNA. Your DNA is like a set of instructions for your cells, telling them how to grow and divide. When a mutation occurs in your DNA, normal cells will repair the mutation or simply die. In cancer, your cells continue living with this mutation. As a result, they grow and divide in chaotic fashion.

Mutations in your DNA can be caused by:

Your own habits
Certain lifestyle choices are known to cause cancer. Smoking, drinking more than one drink a day (for women) or two drinks a day (for men), being overweight, damage to skin unprotected by sunscreen, and unsafe sexual behaviors can lead to the mutations that cause cancer. You can break these habits to lower your risk of cancer — though some habits are easier to break than others.



Your environment
The environment around you may contain harmful chemicals that can cause mutations in your genes. Even if you don't smoke, you might breathe secondhand smoke if you go places where people are smoking or you live with someone who smokes. Chemicals in your home or work environment, such as asbestos and benzene, can also cause cancer.

Your family history
Some mutations in your DNA can be traced back to your parents. If cancer is common in your family, it's possible that mutations are being passed from one generation to the next. You might be a candidate for genetic screening to see whether you have mutations that might increase your risk of cancer. Keep in mind that having an inherited genetic mutation doesn't necessarily mean you'll get cancer.



Chronic conditions
Some chronic health conditions, such as ulcerative colitis, can develop into cancer. Talk to your doctor about your risk.

Much is still unknown about cancer. Some people with many risk factors don't develop cancer, and some people with no apparent risk factors develop cancer nonetheless.


How does cancer grow?

Cancer cells grow in an uncontrolled manner. One malignant cell becomes two, two become four, four become eight, and so on, until a mass of cells (a tumor) is created. The tumor interferes with the normal functioning of healthy tissue and can spread to other parts of your body.

Not all tumors are cancerous, and not all cancers form tumors. For example, leukemia is a cancer that involves blood, bone marrow, the lymphatic system and the spleen but doesn't form a single mass or tumor.



Cancer invades and destroys normal tissue. It can also produce chemicals that interfere with body functions. For instance, some lung cancers secrete chemicals that alter the levels of calcium in your blood, affecting nerves and muscles and causing weakness and dizziness.

Cancer can also spread (metastasize) and invade healthy tissue in other areas of your body.



Cancer can take years to develop. By the time a cancerous mass is detected, it's likely that 100 million to 1 billion cancer cells are present, and the original cancer cell may have been dividing for five years or more.

Who gets cancer?

Cancer doesn't discriminate when it comes to race, sex or age — anyone can get cancer. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that half the men and one-third of the women in the United States will develop cancer during their lifetimes.

The ACS estimates that more than 1.3 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in 2004, and about 564,000 people will die of the disease. The types of cancer you're at greatest risk for varies based on your sex, age, where you live and habits such as diet and exercise.


What can you do to reduce your risk cancer?

Until recently, cancer was incurable. But today, cancer is no longer an automatic death sentence. More than half the people with a diagnosis of cancer survive five years or more after their diagnosis.

One key to survival is early detection of cancer. Talk to your doctor about cancer screenings, if you aren't already on a regular schedule of screenings. The tests you should have depend on your sex, age and family history of cancer.



As more is known about cancer, researchers are discovering ways you can protect yourself from cancer before it starts to form. These include:

Don't smoke or use tobacco products.
Limit your exposure to sun and use sunscreen.
Drink alcohol only in moderation, if at all.
Exercise and stay active.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Be aware of risk factors in your home and workplace, and take steps to reduce your exposure to these substances.
Talk to your doctor about your cancer risk. Routine physical examinations can help you and your doctor identify your behaviors and other factors that might increase your risk of cancer



Hope this helps. To find out information on a specfic cancer. Check out the website http://www.plwc.org click on cancers and then on the type of cancer you want to know about.

Best of luck and Take Care.

Answer 2

Cancer can happen to any part of the body.

The general treatment for cancer is an operation, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.

Some people do die from cancer. I did not. I had ovarian cancer at 17. I had an operation to remove my ovaries and uterus and then I had chemotherapy. The treatment is harsh. I was very sick and ended up in isolation. The treatment not only kills bad cells but also good cells.

The treatment worked for me and I have been cancer free now for 20 years.

Answer 3

there are many many types of cancer...I'd be typing all night telling about all the different types (if I even knew them all).Cancer I think for the most part is an abnormal growth of mutated cells.
Many cancer patients survive.I had cancer of the larnyx and had an operation and now I'm cured.I can't speak very loud ,but other than that I'm fine.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

www.cancer.org would be a good place to start.

"Cancer" is actually many, many different diseases with the common symptom that cells begin dividing uncontrollably. Many cancers can be completely cured if caught early enough, but many still threaten life, unfortunately.

Answer 6

Cancer is the vitamin deficiency disease that the 'health' racket is making claims to as one of their biggest commodities, hence, Cancer, Inc.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/general
http://www.medicinenet.com/cancer/article.htm
http://cancer.about.com/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cancer.html