Cancer

The term cancer refers to a condition or disease where some of the cells in specific or multiple parts of the body grow uncontrollably and start to spread invading and destroying surrounding healthy tissue and organs. Cancer can also produce something known as metastasis, where the abnormal cells in one part of the body divide and start to travel to other organs or areas. In a healthy person, cells grow, multiply and form new ones when the body needs them. When these grow old they die and our organisms let new ones take their place. In some individuals, this process produces damaged or unhealthy cells instead of normal ones. These can start to multiply and grow masses or lumps of tissue called tumours (which can be malignant and cancerous or benign).

By developing cancerous tumours, the surrounding tissues are compromised and these cells start to prolifer with the possibility of forming new tumours. However, there are some types of cancer such as leukaemia that do not necessarily form and grow cancerous lumps. Over two hundred types of cancers are known to specialists around the world and each has its specific characteristics and diagnosis with appropriate treatments. Opposed to healthy cell development, abnormal cancerous cells grow and develop without the body’s signalling them to grow and these keep dividing while they invade nearby parts of the body. Although survival rates have been improving throughout the years due to prevention and better treatments, this genetic disease is still the second leading cause of death globally.