More about cancer and side effects
What Is Cancer?
Cancer happens when normal cells lose control of their ability to grow and divide. This can happen as a result of mutations that can cause some genes to become overactive (oncogenes), or others to become inactive (tumor suppressor genes). Some kinds of cancer are not caused by genetic mutations, but instead happen as a result of other kinds of genetic changes called epigenetics.
A benign tumor is normally one that does not spread beyond the place where it first occurs. Cancer tumors are those that can grow and spread to different organs or other parts of the body. When a cancer tumor does spread (or metastasize), it is still called the same type of cancer. For example, if breast cancer spreads to the lungs, we do not call it lung cancer. We call it breast cancer with metastasis to the lungs.
- Approaches to treating cancer
- Cancer information
- Cancer prevention
- Complementary and alternative medicine
- Coping with side effects