Cancer: Know everything about it

What is Cancer???

Cancer term is used for a large group of disease that can affect any part of our body. The main feature of Cancer is out of control growth of cells. It is actually a condition caused due to out of control growth of cells in any specific part of the body.

There are different types of cancer depend upon the type of cell affected initially.

The altered cells of our body divide continuously and uncontrollably to form lumps of tissue which we generally call tumors. One exception is there, In blood cancer which is also called leukemia, cancer prohibits normal functioning of blood by abnormal cell division in the blood stream.

Tumors usually interfere with the digestive, nervous, circulatory, respiratory or excretory system or any other part of body and tumors are also capable of releasing hormone and thereby altering the functioning of human body.

Generally, tumors which remain stationary at a point in our body and exhibit limited growth are considered to be benign.

More dangerous tumors form mainly in two cases:

1. If cancer causing cell is able to move throughout the body using blood or lymphatic tissues and destroying healthy tissues of the body in a process which we usually called the invasion.
2. The cancer cell divide and grow uncontrollably and making new blood vessels to feed itself in a process called angiogenesis.

According to a report by WHO, Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. The most common causes of cancer death are cancers of:

• Lung (1.69 million deaths)
• Liver (788 000 deaths)
• Colorectal (774 000 deaths)
• Stomach (754 000 deaths)
• Breast (571 000 deaths)

What causes Cancer???

Cancer is actually the transformation of normal body cells into tumor cells in various stages starting from a normal lesion to a deadly tumor. These abnormalities in cells occur as a result of person’s genetic factor with external agents. These external agents include:

• Physical carcinogens like ultraviolet and ionizing radiation.
• Chemical carcinogenic compounds like asbestos, tobacco, arsenic etc.
• Biological carcinogens such as certain bacteria, viruses or parasites.

Aging is also one of the fundamental factors for the development of cancer. The chances of cancer rise dramatically with age.

Chewing of tobacco, alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity are major risk factors for cancer worldwide.

According to a report of WHO, Approximately 15% of cancers diagnosed in 2012 were attributed to carcinogenic infections, including Helicobacter pylori, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus, and Epstein-Barr virus.

Classification

Depending upon the affected part of our body, Cancer is broadly classified into five categories.

1. Carcinomas: – Cells that cover internal and external parts of our body such as lung, breast, and colon cancer.
2. Sarcomas: – Cells which are located in bones for e.g. bone, cartilage, fat, muscles and other supportive tissues.
3. Lymphomas: – Cancer that begins from lymph nodes and immune system.
4. Leukaemias: – Usually this term is used for blood cancer and cancer that begin in bone marrow and accumulate in the blood stream.
5. Adenomas: – Cancer that arises in glands such as thyroid, pituitary, adrenal gland and other glands.

Signs and Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of cancer depend upon the type of cancer, the size of tumor and area affected by the tumor. If a tumor is not static i.e. tumor has mobility in our body then sometimes symptoms appear in different parts of the body. As cancer grows, the size of tumor started to increase and as a result of this, tumor starts pressing or pushing nearby organs, blood vessels and nerves. This compression may give a sign of cancer and if Cancer is in any critical part of the body such as the brain, then even the smallest tumor can cause symptoms.

There are cases where cancer starts from a place where it does not show any sign or symptoms until it becomes very large. For example, Cancer of Pancreas usually doesn’t cause symptoms until it grows up to advance stage (it means it has grown and spread beyond the place it started).

Cancer may also cause symptoms like fever, fatigue or weight loss because cancer cells use much of the energy of our body. Sometimes cancer cells release substances into the bloodstream that causes symptoms that are not usually linked to cancer.

Apart from all above some general signs of cancer are unexplained weight loss, constant fever, fatigue, unusual pain and the certain type of skin changes like wounds that do not heal or long lasting ulcers in the mouth.

Treatment

Cancer treatment depends on the type of cancer, the growth of the tumor (stage of cancer), the age of the victim, health status, and other characteristics. There is no single and sure treatment of cancer and generally, patients are diagnosed with a combination of therapies. Treatment usually comes under these categories: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormone or gene therapy.

• Surgery is generally in those cases where cancer is not mobile and it is possible to completely cure a patient by surgically removing tumour from the body. This is often the case with prostate, breast or testicle cancer.
• Radiation treatment is also called radiotherapy destroys cancer by focusing high-energy rays on the cancer cells. This way, high energy radiation damage cancer cells and leads them to commit suicide.
• Chemotherapy uses chemicals to stop the process of cell division, damaging proteins so that cancer cell commits to suicide.
• Immunotherapy focuses on strengthening the immune system of the body to fight the with cancer cells.
• Cancers, where the growth of cells is linked with the specific hormone, reducing that hormone helps to cure cancer. Some leukemia and lymphoma can be treated with hormone therapy.
• The goal of gene therapy is to replace damaged genes with new ones to address the root cause of cancer i.e. damage to DNA.

Statistics

According to NICPR (National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research)

• Every eight minute, one woman died of cervical cancer in India.
• As many as 2500 persons die every day due to tobacco-related disease in India.
• Smoking account for 1 in 5 deaths among men and 1 in 20 deaths among women, accounting for an estimated 9,30,000 deaths in 2010.
• For every two women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, one woman dies of it in India.