Cancer

Cancer and its environment

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world today; each type of cancer is unique with its own causes, symptoms, and methods of treatment. Studies show that one in three people will suffer from some form of cancer in their lifetime. It is estimated that one out of three persons will have cancer in their lifetimes. About one in six persons will die ofcancer. No one knows the exact number of new cancer cases diagnosed each year because no nationwide cancer registry exists. They do know that about 500,000 cancer deaths occur annually in the U.S. (Quinn, 2010)

Cancer usually comes from the formation of a tumor. Tumors form in the body when cells are produced unnecessarily. These cells are formed when they are not needed, and they group togetherto form a tumor. The tumor can be non-cancerous, or it can be malignant, which means that it is cancerous. If cells break away from a malignant tumor, they will enter the bloodstream, and spread throughout the body, damaging other parts of the body. (Fayed, 2009)

There are many different kinds of cancer that affect different parts of the body, the reason is that cancerous cells can growanywhere in the body. The location of the cancer and the type of tissue involved helps to give the disease a specific name, for example lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Other examples are melanoma, this type of cancer involves cells that contain skin color called melanin, which is caused for being too exposed to the sun and not protecting your skin.
Another type of canceris leukemia, which starts in the tissue that forms blood, “In a person with leukemia, the bone marrow makes abnormal white blood cells. The abnormal cells are leukemia cells.” (Leukemia, 1996-2011)
Unlike normal blood cells, leukemia cells don't die when they should. They may crowd out normal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This makes it hard for normal blood cells to do theirwork.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for both sexes, followed by prostate cancer in males and breast cancer in females. For children younger than 15 years old, cancer is the second leading cause of death after accidents.
A person is not born with cancer; cancer is a process that involves different steps. The first step involves changes to the DNA of a cell calledinitiation. Normally, the body’s repair systems can replace damaged sections of DNA, allowing the cell to recover. If the cell reproduces while the DNA is damaged, more irregular cells can be made that may cause cancer.
Usually, initiation by itself is not enough to produce cancer. The new cells go through more changes that may need an additional substance called a promoter. A period of many yearsusually exists between the initiation of the cancer process and the start of the symptoms.
No one completely understands this process, but certain characteristics of a person’s lifestyle can be related to cancer formation.
How can a person detect if they have cancer before checking themselves? Well, all the types of cancer named before have warning signs and different symptoms. These signs foundin a person would indicate the person that they can be suffering from some type of cancer, some of the signs can be a sore that does not heal, unusual bleeding, thickening or lumps in breast, have a difficult time swallowing, changes in a mole or irritating coughing.
The symptoms depend on the size and location of the cancer. In some areas, symptoms will not appear until the cancer is very large,making the cancer much more difficult to treat. The general symptoms are fever, fatigue, and strict weight loss, a change of metabolism, blood clots, weakness and dizziness.
There is no single cause of cancer, cancer can be caused by are many things, as family genetics, health, nutrition, personal habits and the environment each individual is exposed in or living in.
Genetic factors by...