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Introduction and Conclusion to Cancer

Decent Essays

1.What Is Cancer?
CANCER, a 6 letter word that makes our world upside down.
Cancer is not just one disease, but a large group of almost 100 diseases. Its two main characteristics are uncontrolled growth of the cells in the human body and the ability of these cells to migrate from the original site and spread to distant sites. If the spread is not controlled, cancer can result in death. 2.How does cancer occur? The body is made up of trillions of living cells. These cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. This process is a tightly regulated one that is controlled by the DNA machinery within the cell. When a person is a baby or a child or within his or her mother’s womb, cells divide rapidly to allow for growth. After the person …show more content…

* Likelihood of recurrence - Benign tumors seldom occur after surgery, whereas malignant tumors recur much more commonly. Surgery to remove a malignant tumor is more difficult than surgery for a benign tumor. Using the fingerlike analogy above, it is much easier to remove a tumor that has a clear fibrous boundary than a tumor that has penetrated nearby tissues with these fingerlike projections. If cells are left over from these fingers, the tumor is more likely to come back. * Systemic effects - Malignant tumors are more likely to have systemic, or total body, effects than benign tumors. Due to the nature of these tumors, symptoms such as fatigue andweight loss are common. Several types of malignant tumors also secrete substances that cause effects on the body beyond those caused by the original tumor. An example of this is the paraneoplastic syndrome caused by some cancers, resulting in a wide array of physical symptoms from hypercalcemia (an elevation of calcium in the blood) to Cushing’s syndrome(which in turn causes symptoms such as rounding of the face, stretch marks and weakened bones). * Death toll - Benign tumors cause around 13,000 deaths per year in the United States. The number of deaths that can be blamed on malignant (cancerous) tumors is over 575,000.

5.Causes of Cancer:
Environmental Risk Factors

Ionizing Radiation
Radiations due to radon gas and prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun can lead to melanoma and other

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