What is Cancer? What Causes it?
Cancer can be a very overwhelming subject. But by knowing more about this disease the medical community can come closer to curing it. First we are going to start small and explain cancer using broader terms, then in the sub-pages under cancer, each of us will be focusing our attention to one of the four types of cancer:
TUMORS
The term tumor comes from the Latin word for crab, because it grabs on and will not let go of something. Cancers are often caused by tumors (also known less commonly as neoplasms). Tumors are masses of rapidly growing, mutated cells. Malignant tumors are cancerous. Benign tumors are non cancerous and can usually be cured by surgery. Tumors, and therefor cancer, can develop almost anywhere in the body. Metastasis
Metastasis is the occurrence of a cancer that has spread from another part of the body. For example, a lung tumor could spread into the surrounding bone, therefore affecting the bone and its cells. This cancer would still produce lung cancer cells, only now in the bone. |
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