Cancer Essay

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Cancer is a type of disease that has many variations. it is an extremely broad disease, consisting of over 200 different types. It affects millions of people around the world each year. The disease occurs because of an irregular cell growth in the body. The cells uncontrollably divide and grow through the process of mitosis. This creates either benign, or malignant tumors. Benign tumors are not dangerous, but malignant tumors are dangerous and are given the term ‘cancerous’. The malignant tumors can invade other parts of the body by traveling through either the bloodstream, or the lymphatic system. It is a very dangerous disease, it is not contagious, and it can be cured if it is diagnosed and treated early. Many cancers have a different mortality rate, but not all of the different types of cancers have a high mortality rate.
Symptoms and signs
A symptom is a signal that is felt by the person who has the disease, whereas a signal is a signal that an witness can notice. One symptom is often not enough to accurately diagnose a disease, but it is still very important to seek medical advice if even one of theses symptoms are noticed. Some common symptoms for cancer is: Unexplained weight loss (4.5 kilograms or more), fever, fatigue, pain, and skin changes, which include darker looking skin, yellowish skin reddened skin, excessive hair growth, and itching.
Latest Research
At the moment, scientists are getting closer to inventing a test to discover whether a person has lung cancer, through a simple blood test.
Recently, scientists have discovered a treatment called Immunotherapy.
This increases the immune system of the body, thus decreasing the chance to get extremely sick ...

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Radiation uses high energy x-rays to eradicate dividing cells. It is performed when either the patient refuses surgery, or when the cancer has spread to an area where surgery is impossible, like the lymph nodes, or the trachea. Radiation often only decreases the size of the tumor, or limits its growth, but in some cases, it has been known to destroy it.
Chemotherapy is a platinum based drug that can either be given in a pill form, or as an intravenous infusion, or both at the same time. It is given to the patients over a time period of weeks to months, depending on the severity of the cancer.
This treatment destroys normal dividing cells as well as the cancer cells, and therefore has some bad side effects, like a weakened immune system, hair loss, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and mouth sores.
These effects often disappear during the completion of the therapy.

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