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Cancer Essay

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Cancer

What is cancer? Cancer is the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells that if left untreated can ultimately cause death. The word cancer came from the Greek word for crab, karkinos. The early Greek physicians who first described cancerous tumors had no notion of their cause or true nature, but they were struck by the resemblance if some invasive tumors to crabs: a hard mass with a claw like extensions and an aggressive nature. Cancer causes about 550,000 deaths a year. Although many people believe that cancer is one disease, there are actually in fact over a 100 different forms of cancer. Some cancers can be cured, but not all of them have cures. Even though each type has its own characteristics, all cancers share one …show more content…

The first form of cancer I am going to talk about is Breast Cancer. This is one of the most common cancers found in women and also has caused almost the same amount of deaths in women as lung cancer. Breast cancer can also occur in men, but it rarely does. In the United States, about one out of every nine women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. Breast cancer increased during the 1980's but now appears to have leveled off; each year about 175,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Although death rates declined during the early 1990's, about 44,000 women die from breast cancer each year. Less than 1% of breast cancer cases occur in women under the age of 30, but a women's risk doubles every 5 years between the ages of 30 and 45 and then increases by 10-15% every 5 years after the age 45. More than 75% of breast cancer is diagnosed in women over 50.
**"The way breast cancer behaves varies greatly. Cancer may stay confined to the breast for years, or it might spread to the nearby lymph nodes or even more distant areas before there is even a detection of a lump. The most common type of early breast cancer begins in the cells lining the ducts of the breast. The ducts connect the milk-producing glands to the nipple. Less often, cancer begins in milk-producing tissue, which is made up of lobes and smaller sections called lobules. Breast cancer falls into

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