Frank & Honest
What is Cancer?
What is Cancer?
Most likely you have known someone who has, or had, cancer. What is it? Cancer occurs when cells in the body start to grow out of control.
There are more than 200 types of cancer but they all start because of the growth of abnormal cells that get out of control.
Normally cells grow, divide and die in an orderly way, when a person is younger the cells divide rapidly to achieve growth, when adulthood is reached most cells divide just to replace worn-out or injured cells. But cancer cells continue to grow and divide, and instead of dying, they continue to make abnormal cells.
Cancer cells develop because the DNA is damaged; this is present in all cells and directs the cell’s activities.
The body can repair damaged DNA most of the time – in cancer cells it is not repaired. A person can inherit damaged DNA and that accounts for inherited cancers.
Mostly though, a person’s DNA is damaged by the exposure to something in the environment, such as smoking and alcohol.
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