World Can­cer Day: Im­prove your aware­ness and get screened

Can­cer is the sec­ond-lead­ing cause of death in the world. But sur­vival rates are im­prov­ing for many types of can­cer, thanks to im­prove­ments in can­cer screen­ing and can­cer treat­ment.

Can­cer is a group of more than 100 dis­eases that can de­vel­op al­most any­where in the body. Cells are the ba­sic units that make up the hu­man body. They grow and di­vide to make new cells in or­der to al­low the body to grow and re­plen­ish it­self. Usu­al­ly, cells die when they get too old or dam­aged. Then, new cells take their place. How­ev­er, this is al­ways a con­trolled and or­der­ly process and the cells do not grow and di­vide un­con­trol­lably.

Can­cer be­gins when ge­net­ic changes in­ter­fere with this or­der­ly process of cell re­pro­duc­tion. Cells start to grow un­con­trol­lably. These cells may form a mass of cells that grow un­con­trol­lably called a tu­mor. A tu­mor can be be­nign. This means its growth is not so un­con­trol­lable that it could spread to oth­er parts of the body and dis­turb nor­mal phys­i­o­log­ic process­es. How­ev­er, if the tu­mor is ma­lig­nant, then it is can­cer­ous and is like­ly to grow so un­con­trol­lably that it spreads to oth­er parts of the body and dis­turbs nor­mal phys­i­o­log­i­cal process­es. Tu­mors re­sult from ge­net­ic changes in sol­id tis­sues like the brain, colon, stom­ach, prostate, breasts, skin etc. If the source of the ge­net­ic change is form tis­sue that is not sol­id how­ev­er, e.g. blood or lymph, a tu­mor does not de­vel­op. These in­clude leukemias, most types of lym­phoma, and myelo­ma.

Doc­tors di­vide can­cer in­to types based on where it be­gins. Four main types of can­cer are:

Car­ci­no­mas. A car­ci­no­ma be­gins in the skin or the tis­sue that cov­ers the sur­face of in­ter­nal or­gans and glands. Car­ci­no­mas usu­al­ly form sol­id tu­mors. They are the most com­mon type of can­cer. Ex­am­ples of car­ci­no­mas in­clude prostate can­cer, breast can­cer, lung can­cer, and col­orec­tal can­cer.

Sar­co­mas. A sar­co­ma be­gins in the tis­sues that sup­port and con­nect the body. A sar­co­ma can de­vel­op in fat, mus­cles, nerves, ten­dons, joints, blood ves­sels, lymph ves­sels, car­ti­lage, or bone.

Leukemias. Leukemia is a can­cer of the blood. Leukemia be­gins when healthy blood cells change and grow un­con­trol­lably. The four main types of leukemia are acute lym­pho­cyt­ic leukemia, chron­ic lym­pho­cyt­ic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, and chron­ic myeloid leukemia.

Lym­phomas. Lym­phoma is a can­cer that be­gins in the lym­phat­ic sys­tem. The lym­phat­ic sys­tem is a net­work of ves­sels and glands that help fight in­fec­tion. There are two main types of lym­phomas: Hodgkin lym­phoma and non-Hodgkin lym­phoma.

There are al­so oth­er types of can­cers in ad­di­tion to these main four types.

As a can­cer­ous tu­mor grows, the blood­stream or lym­phat­ic sys­tem may car­ry can­cer cells to oth­er parts of the body. Dur­ing this process, the can­cer cells grow and may de­vel­op in­to new tu­mors. This is known as metas­ta­sis. One of the first places a can­cer of­ten spreads is to the lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are tiny, bean-shaped or­gans that help fight in­fec­tion. They are lo­cat­ed in clus­ters in dif­fer­ent parts of the body, such as the neck, groin area, and un­der the arms. Can­cer may al­so spread through the blood­stream to dis­tant parts of the body. These parts may in­clude the bones, liv­er, lungs, or brain. Even if the can­cer spreads, it is still named for the area where it be­gan. For ex­am­ple, if breast can­cer spreads to the lungs, it is called metasta­t­ic breast can­cer, not lung can­cer.

Dr. Visham Bhimull

MBBS (UWI)

Diplo­ma in Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine (UWI)