how cancer is Dangerous

 CANCER”.... doesn’t the term scare us all?

                 

                                                                                                                                   
              

Well it sure

ly does!

But how does this bizarre disorder grip our lives?

How is it able to conquer over our mind, body and 

soul?

Why is it so scary?

Let us find the answers in this blog!

We will start by understanding what exactly cancer is. 

We all know that the cells in our body continuously divide.

Cell Division occurs for various reasons ranging from growth and development 

to repair.

However, the process happens in an orderly manner. 

Now if the cells lose control over their division process, then the uncontrolled division can lead to formation of lumps of outrageous cells. This is nothing but Cancer! In simple words, Cancer is a disorder which develops when the cells in our body grow out of control, creating a cell mass. This mass of cells known as tumor. Now tell me, is every tumor growing in the body always cancerous? Many of us would yes….But the answer is a No! Every tumor is not cancerous. A tumor is a mass or lump of cells.  So depending upon whether it is capable of invading other tissues and cause harm, or it can silently remain at one place without harming other cells in the vicinity, a tumor is classified in two major types. One type is called malignant and the other type is called benign.

Let’s understand each type one by one. 

Sometimes, a few cells lose their ability of controlled division and form a tumor. But after a particular time, the tumor does not grow much in size and remains calm at its place. It does not spread across the blood to invade surrounding tissues. These calm, harmless and non-cancerous tumors are called Benign tumors. On the other hand, malignant tumors are cancerous. They spread and invade other body tissues. Here, their aggressive nature helps the tumor cells to derive nutrients from other surrounding healthy cells. As a result, the healthy cells die and this gives the tumor cells an opportunity to grow even faster! The process of spreading of the cancer cells to other body parts, and then growing continuously in those locations is known as metastasis. Now that we have learned about the types of tumors, let’s move ahead and learn about the types of cancer.

Are there types of cancers?                                   

             

Yes there are!

Among the several types of cancers studied today, we 

will mainly focus on three major types.

 our list we have carcinomas, sarcomas, leukemias and lymphomas.

Let us glance at these types. 

Carcinomas are cancers of epithelial tissues. That means, carcinomas are developed in the skin and tissue lining of the organs like prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, lungs and so on. The next type is that of Sarcomas. These types arise in the connective tissues like bone cells, cartilage, muscles and other soft tissues in the body.

Now talking about Lymphomas and Leukemias, aren't the names self-

explanatory?

Lymphomas, as the name suggests, are the cancers that develop in 

the lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cells .On the other hand, cancers which result in an abnormal amount of blood cells like abnormal number of red blood cells, or leukocytes are known as leukemias. So both, lymphocytes and leukemias are types of blood cancers !And how is any of these types detected? There are several techniques developed today, all thanks to the modern science and technology. For diagnosis various tests are performed on the patients.

Imaging techniques like x-ray, computer tomography, magnetic resonance 

imaging, PET CT scan and many more are performed. These imaging techniques give the medical examiner an idea of the size, shape and location of a particular tumor or multiple tumors inside the body. Similarly, Blood tests can be done to find out the different types of blood cancers. Biopsies of the tissues are also done for better diagnosis. That is, a small sample of tissue or the tumor to be precise, is removed from the patient's body to determine the nature of cancer. Oncologists, that is medical practitioners dealing with cancers, believe that early diagnosis of any type of cancer gives a better chance of curing the case and this increases the survival rate in cancer patients.

The most common treatments for cancer include surgery, chemotherapy and 

radiotherapy. Surgeries are performed to remove the tumor from the body. In chemotherapy various drugs which inhibit the growth of growing cells in the body are used. Since these drugs kill the growing cells, all the aggressively growing cancer cells get killed with different doses. Lastly, radiotherapy focuses on destroying tumor cells using different radiations. High doses of radiation are used to kill or shrink tumor cells. Apart from these, there are various other techniques which are being developed and are under trial stages in clinical testing. A healthy lifestyle, and avoiding exposure to harmful chemicals and radiation are a few steps to keep our body cells from getting damaged, and turn aggressive! also, regular health checkups which can help in early detection of any type of tumor, can increase the chances of curing the patient! This was about one of the most dangerous disorders that the human race is fighting today!

 

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