What is Cancer?

Cancer is the overall name given to a group of related diseases. It can start from almost anywhere in the human body. Normally, the cells in your body grow and divide to form new cells. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and the newly formed cells take their place.

In all types of cancer, your cells don’t function normally. The old or damaged cells in your body don’t die and will divide without stopping. These new cells grow in excess and spread into surrounding tissues, causing growths called tumors. Cancer can occur anywhere in your body including the breast, intestines, lungs, reproductive organs, blood, and skin.

What are tumors?

Tumors can be malignant or benign. If a tumor is malignant, some cancer cells may break off from the growing tumor and move into further parts of your body through your blood or lymph system. This can result in the formation of new tumors far away from the original tumor. When removed, malignant tumors can sometimes grow back.

On the other hand, benign tumors grow slowly and do not spread into nearby tissues. The cells of benign tumors are non-cancerous. Something just went wrong, and the cells overgrew to produce a lump. These tumors can grow to be quite large, but nce removed, they usually don’t grow back. Although less threatening than malignant tumors, benign tumors can be dangerous when formed in the brain where it can crowd normal structures of the skull. It is also rare for a benign tumor to become malignant.