Cancer is a disease where cells grow out of control and invade, erode and destroy normal tissue.
Cancer
Cancer is a disease where cells grow out of control and invade, erode and destroy normal tissue. The driving forces behind the development of cancer are damaged genes. The gene damage is often caused by environmental factors like smoking. There are over 200 different types of cancer that can occur anywhere in the body. They all have different causes, different symptoms and require different types of treatment. Cancers develop because of a complicated interaction between our genes, our environment and chance. In Britain, the lifetime risk of developing cancer is more than one in three. So it's likely that every family will come into contact with the disease in some way. Different cancers affect people at different ages, but the risk of getting the disease rises significantly as we get older. Around 65 per cent of cancers in this country occur in people over 65.
There are billions of cells in the body that do different jobs, but they are basically similar. They all have a nucleus containing genes. Normally the genes make sure that cells grow and reproduce in an orderly and controlled way. If the system goes wrong for any reason, the usual result is that the cell dies. But occasionally the system goes wrong, due to genetic mutation, in a way that allows a cell to keep on dividing until a lump called a 'tumour' is formed.
Tumours can be benign or malignant, Benign means not cancer. Benign tumours are made up of cells similar to normal cells; they usually grow quite slowly and do not spread to other parts of the body. They cause problems if they press on body organs, take up space inside the skull, or release hormones that effect how the body functions.
