Cancer News Information

Cancer-termed as the "Emperor of Maladies" is one of the most widespread non-communicable disease present in the modern day world. Many millions of individuals are diagnosed with this incurable disease, every day in different regions of the world.

Many people do not understand the exact nature of this disease, all they know is that this is a disease which when it grabs hold of a person, always leads to the demise of the individual.

But, how is it caused? Does everyone have the potential to act as preferable hosts for this brutal disease?
Cancer is usually genetically transferred from parent to offspring. Many individuals have several genes called as cellular oncogenes (c-onc) or proto-oncogenes which when exposed to certain conditions get activated and lead to oncogenic transformation of cells.

There are two types of tumors- benign and malignant tumors. Benign tumors are not very dangerous, in the theoretical sense, as they do not spread from their initial location to other areas of the body. Malignant tumors on the other hand are highly dangerous and lead to certain forms of cancer. These tumors have the most feared property of tumors- metastasis. By this property, cells of the tumor that are sloughed off,and travel to other regions of the body, through the blood. Wherever these cells get lodged in the body, they form new tumors and this leads to cancer.

Normal cells have the property of contact inhibition- the property that inhibits the division of the cells when in contact with neighbouring cells. Cancer cells, it seems, has lost this property of normal cells.

Due to the loss of this property, cancer cells rapidly divide, taking up the space of the surrounding cells and thus prevent them from obtaining sufficient nutrients. This further decreases the functioning capability of the surrounding normal cells. As this continues, the patient's body is unable to carry out the essential life activities and thus cause different symptoms like difficulty in breathing( as in the case of lung cancer) or inability to digest the ingested food substances(in the case of stomach or duodenum cancer).

But how does one diagnose cancer? Now-a-days certain scans like CT (Computed Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) are done to detect cancer of the internal organs. Histopathological studies are also conduced to detect cancer of the tissues and organs.

Due to modern day technology, certain chemicals are used in chemotherapy and radiation therapy which are used to kill the dangerous cancer cells. But a disadvantage of this method is that it does not differentiate between cancer cells and normal body cells and tends to kill these normal cells too. Side-effects also include anaemia, hair loss and extreme tiredness.

But the most important thing that most of the people diagnosed with this incurable malady just need a lot of support from their families.