Cancer

Some general info I compiled on cancer...

Cancer develops when cells in a particular part of the body begin to grow out of control. There are many kinds of cancer, all arise because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells. Normal cells usually divide a multiple of times during the growth period of our life-span and after this period passes, new cells replace old cells when necessary. In contrast to normal cells, cancer cells continue to grow and divide. These cancer cells outlive normal cells and endlessly form new abnormal cells.

Damage to the DNA can result to the development of cancer cells. Damaged DNA can be inherited which accounts for inherited cancers.

Cancer usually forms as a tumour. Some cancers, like leukemia, do not form tumours. Instead, these cancer cells involve the blood and blood-forming organs and circulate through other tissues where they grow. It is characterized by multiplication of blood cells, usually white blood cells.

Regardless of where a cancer may spread, it is always named for the place it began.

Not all tumours are cancerous. Benign (noncancerous) tumours do not spread to other parts of the body and with very rare exceptions, are not life threatening.