Cancer Treatment

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is an umbrella term for many different diseases characterized by the development and uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells. To understand what cancer is, it helps to know how the human body’s trillions of cells grow and divide every day. The DNA inside these cells have “instructions” for what functions they should perform and how to multiply and divide. When these instructions contain errors, the functions the affected cells are supposed to carry out may cease. Although the body can experience gene mutations during normal cell growth, the cells have a mechanism that can recognize such mistakes and repair them. When these mistakes are missed, it can cause a cell to become cancerous.

While healthy cells have a set lifecycle and reproduce and die off in a predictable way as new cells take the place of dead cells, cancer disrupts this process. For reasons scientists still don’t fully understand, sometimes cells start developing abnormalities and go on to live longer than they should while continuing to multiply deformed cells.

How Is Cancer Treated?

Your Oncologist’s prescribed treatment will depend on your specific type of cancer and its attributes, as well as your overall health and goals. One of the most important aspects of cancer care is to stop it from spreading. For most patients, treatment involves a multi-stage approach, including surgery to remove cancerous tumors, medication to destroy lingering cancer cells, and other treatments such as radiation therapy to kill cancer confined to one spot.