Cancer is a general term for more than 100 diseases characterized by abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells. The resulting malignant growth or in other words tumor can invade and destroy surrounding healthy normal tissues. Cancer cells from the tumor can spread through the bloodstream or lymph system to start new cancers in other parts of the body.
What is cancer?
When the body's cells become abnormal and duplicate out of control a tumour is formed, these may be cancerous (spreading) or benign (non-cancerous). Normal body cells divide in a controlled and relativly slow rate, in malignant cells the duplication is uncontrolled and often at a very rapid rate. If the tumour is malignant the disease may develop in other parts of the body where secondary tumours may form (known as metastasis).
Cancer is not a single disease but a wide range of different diseases of which there well over a hundred types. Cancers can be classified into two broad types: haematological (malignancies of the blood) or solid tumours. The name of the cancer depends on the type of tissue and/or site it develops in. For example a sarcoma is a cancer arising from bone, muscle or connective tissue, and carcinoma is cancer arising from epithelial tissue (cells of the glands and the outer layer of skin that lines blood vessels, hollow organs and the body's orifices).
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Nearly half of all men and a little over one-third of all women in the US will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Today, millions of people are living with cancer or have had cancer. The risk of developing most types of cancer can be reduced by changes in a person's lifestyle, for example, by quitting smoking and eating a better diet. The sooner a cancer is found and treatment begins, the better are the chances for living for many years.
Some cancers are particular to men and women. Breast cancer is one of the most common neoplasms, predominantly found in women (1% are in males). Associated with the female reproductive system are cervical, ovarian, and other genealogical cancers. In men prostate cancer is one of the major neoplasms, other cancers of the male reproductive system iclude testis and penile cancer.
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