What is Cancer?
Cancer is a medical term used to refer any one of a large number of diseases, characterized by the development of abnormal cells. Diseased cells grow and divide uncontrollably. They have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. The disease also has the ability to spread throughout your body by the means of lymph systems and blood. Cancer cannot be specifically regarded as one disease rather it is made up of many diseases.
More than 100 types of cancers exist and are there that are named after the type of cell or organ from where they originate. The types of cancer can be categorized into different groups. Some of the major categories are:
- Carcinoma: It is referred to a category of cancer originating in the human body tissues, in the skin or the tissue of internal organs. It can be further categorized into different subtypes that include basal cell carcinoma, transitional carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.
- Sarcoma: This category of cancer begins in fat, blood vessels, cartilage, bone, muscle or any other supportive or connective tissue, in cells outside the bone marrow.
- Leukemia: This category of cancer originates in blood-forming tissue, which also includes bone marrow.
- Myeloma and Lymphoma: This type of cancers starts from the cells of the immune system.
- Germ cell tumor: This refers to cancers derived from pluripotent cells, most often presenting in the testicle or the ovary.
- Blastoma: This category of cancers are derived from immature "predecessor" cells or embryonic tissue. Blastomas are more common in children than in older adults.
Causes of Cancer
Cancer is caused by changes (mutations) to the DNA within cells. The DNA inside a cell contains a set of instructions guiding the cell how to grow and divide. Any disruption in the instructions may allow a cell to become cancerous.
A gene mutation can instruct a healthy cell to:
- Allow rapid growth. As cells grow and divide more rapidly, this creates many new cells that all have that same mutation.
- Fail to stop uncontrolled cell growth. Normal cells know when to stop growing, so that you have just the right number of each type of cell. Cancer cells lose the control (tumor suppressor genes) that tell them when to stop growing. A alteration in a tumor suppressor gene allows cancer cells to continue growing.
- Making mistakes when repairing DNA errors. DNA repair genes, look for errors in a cell's DNA and make required corrections. A mutation in a DNA repair gene may mean that other errors are not corrected, leading cells to become cancerous.
These mutations are the most common ones found in cancer. But many other gene mutations can contribute to causing cancer.
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What Is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia?
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.
The word “acute" in acute lymphocytic leukemia comes from the fact that the disease progresses rapidly and creates immature blood cells, rather than mature ones. The word “lymphocytic" in acute lymphocytic leukemia refers to the white blood cells called lymphocytes, which ALL affects. Acute lymphocytic leukemia is also known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Acute lymphocytic leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children, and treatments result in a good chance for a cure. Acute lymphocytic leukemia can also occur in adults, though the chance of a cure is greatly reduced.
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