What is Cancer?

Our body organs and tissues are made up of cells. These cells act as building blocks. Cancer is the disease of these cells. Cells present in our body may look or work differently but they reproduce themselves in the same way. There is a specific cycle of cells life in our body in which they gradually become old and than die. In the same new cells are produced in our body. In general these cells divide and grow in an orderly manner. When the cells display division beyond there limit which leads to uncontrolled growth of cells. This further leads to intrusion and destruction of adjacent tissues. This uncontrolled growth cells is called Cancer. In medical term cancer is also called as malignant neoplasm. These cancer cells can spread to other parts of body through blood or lymph this is known as metastasis. There three malignant properties of cancer which differentiate it from benign tumors are, they are self limited they do not invade or metastasize. When these cells grow abnormally they start making lumps which is called tumors. Most of the cancers form tumor but cancers like leukemia does not form tumors. Tumors can broadly be specified into two forms, benign tumor or malignant tumor. Malignant tumors are called cancers. Tumor is identified by doing biopsy; in this the infected cell is examined under a small microscope. In Benign tumor cells do not spread themselves into other parts of body. However if the tumor keep on growing, it may suppress other organs surrounded to it. This can lead to problems. On the other hand malignant tumor spread themselves to other parts through blood or lymph. If such tumor left untreated it may spread and infect other organs of the body by making more tumors these new tumors are called secondary cancer or metastasis. The two ways in which these cells get transformed is bloodstream or lymphatic system.

Lymphatic system is the part of body immune system. Immune system is body’s natural defense against disease and infection. Immune system is a complex system which is made up of organs like bone marrow, the thymus, lymph nodes, and the spleen. Lymph nodes or glands are connected through our body by a network of tiny lymphatic ducts. The branch of medicine which deals with study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is called oncology. It is important to realize that there are more than 2oo different type of cancer, each with its own name and treatment. Death rate due to cancer is very high, according to a study done by American Cancer Society around 13% around 6.6 million people died due to cancer in year 2007. cancer may affect people of all ages and even all animals.

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Statistics of Cancer

Statistics of Cancer

Cancer this word itself evokes deep fears of a silent killer that creeps upon us. Cancer conjures up such a desperation is us that today it has become a metaphor for pain and grief. The number of cancer patients have reached so high that each one of us is been touched by it as a patient, a family member or as a friend. Cancer is growing at a very fast rate in developing countries. Figure has reached twenty million.
20 million people are fighting with this dreadful disease. Yet, every country has to take a lot of measures to prevent, cure and relive this suffering. If we look at the numbers at least one third of the 10 million cancer cases that occurs annually can be prevented with the existing knowledge. If an early detection and effective treatment facilities are available we can treat at least one third of cancer cases. Which itself is a big number. All we need is right knowledge and sufficient resources. We can even improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families, even in very low cost. We should thanks to effective, low cost approaches that provide us resources in very low settings.

For the challenges of this era scientific and public health prevention and control of cancer is the most important and most challenging. Controlling and understanding of malignant disease is very difficult because of its broader dimensions. It requires high scientific knowledge and experience to understand the complexities of intracellular molecular regulation to the individual choice of lifestyle. For executing a planning we require competent management. So the resources available to us can be used efficiently to serve us to its best. Appropriate strategies along with competence management will lead to best use of resources for planning, implementing and evaluating cancer control strategy.

Goal of various institutes like National Cancer Control and WHO is too give a better life to cancer patients and to their families. So that morbidity and mortality caused from cancer can be reduced.