Cancer

Cancer

Right now, cancer is one of the most feared diseases in the world. In

the early 1990s almost 6 million new cancer cases developed and more than 4

million deaths from cancers occurred. Also more than one-fifth of all deaths

were caused by cancer and it has been predicted, by the American Cancer Society,

that about 33% of Americans will eventually develop this disease. This is a huge

disease that is killing people all over the world.

The field of cancer study is called Oncology. The government has spent

billions of dollars on research of this fatal disease. Cancer is the most

aggressive disease of a larger class known as neoplasms. Neoplasms do not fully

comply with the parts of the cell that control the growth and functions of the

cell. These cells eventually become abnormal growths and can be recognized as

not normal tissue. These traits are passed down as the cell reproduces therefore

spreading the cancer.

Neoplasms are generally classified into two groups: malignant and benign.

Malignant tumors, or abnormal tissue, grow more rapidly than benign tissue and

they invade normal tissue. Benign tissue is structured similar to normal tissue

while malignant tissue is abnormal and has an unstructured appearance. Of

greater importance, benign tissue does not metastasize, or begin to grow in

other sites, like malignant tumors do. Cancer always refers to metastasized

tumors but the term tumor is not always necessarily cancer. A tumor is any

living tissue that is distinguishable as abnormal living tissue. After a

cancer forms, it can also change from a benign to a malignant state, therefore

making the cell grow at a more rapid rate. The development of the cell starts

when it forms notable abnormalities in chromosomes and then multiplies

exceedingly. Then metastasis usually occurs and generally causes the death of

the host. There are many different cancers which form on just about all parts of

the body. In the US, skin cancer is the most common cancer, then prostate

cancers in males, and then breast cancer in women. Leukemia is clearly the

dominant cancer in children. The number one killing cancer in the world today is

lung cancer, mostly caused by the smoking of cigarettes. Some researchers have

stated that if Americans stopped smoking, lung-cancer deaths could disintegrate

within two decades. Stomach cancer is ...

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...e cancerous legions in the body. The second is radiation

therapy, which uses radiation to try and kill the tumor. One of the main

problems with that is not only does it kill cancerous tissue, it also kills

healthy ones. The third way to treat cancer is chemotherapy, which is treatment

by chemical agents. The chance of complete cure is not common but it is usually

used to increase the life of the carrier. The desired effect of treatment in

cancer patients is remission, where the cancer is gone from your body and if it

does not return within 5 years it is considered cured.

Right now the government is spending huge sums of money on cancer

research. They are continuously finding cures and finding better ways to treat

and deal with cancer. Research has come very far and helped many people fight

cancers. Thanks to all the work done, cancer is still a dreaded disease but is

now curable which gives many people faith in recovery.

Bibliography

Compton’s Encyclopedia(1992). Cancer . Chicago: Compton’s Learning Company

Encyclopedia Britannica(1992). Cancer. Chicago: Encyclopedia Brittanica, Inc.

American Cancer Society website(1996): http://www.cancer.org/acs.html