This is the single most powerful word that you will ever hear from a doctor. In an instant your whole world falls apart and you think your life is over.
Cancer is a malignancy, is characterized by an abnormal growth of cells.
There are over 100 types of cancer such as multiple myeloma, breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma. Cancer symptoms vary widely depending on the type of cancer that you have and the treatment your are receiving.
WHAT IS CANCER?
Our bodies produce healthy cells that divide and replace themselves in a controlled fashion. Cancer starts when a cell is altered and then it multiplies out of control.
Most cancers form tumors, but not all tumors are cancerous. A tumor is a mass composed of a cluster of such abnormal cells. Most cancers form tumors, but not all tumors are cancerous.
Benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body, and do not create new tumors. Cancerous tumors block out the healthy cells and eventually interfere with the body’s normal function. Cancers continue to grow and spread by metastasis. This means malignant cells travel through the lymphatic or blood vessels eventually forming new tumors in other parts of the body.
The four major types of cancer are carcinoma, sarcoma, lymphoma, and leukemia.
Carcinomas, the most commonly diagnosed cancers originate in the skin, lungs, breasts, pancreas.
Sarcomas arise in bone, muscle, fat, or cartilage. Leukemia are cancers of the blood and do not usually form solid tumors. Cancer specialists, called oncologist, have made remarkable advances in cancer diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.
Today, more than half of all people diagnosed with cancer are cured. However, some forms of the disease remain frustratingly difficult to treat
There are many ways that cancer is treated it depends on the type of cancer you have, however today there are more ways to manage the pain of treatment then there was ten years ago. Even if you have a type of cancer that can not be cured there are treatments that can significantly improve your quality of life.