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What causes people to get cancer essay
Many causes of cancer
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What is Cancer?
By Dasharath Paran, Year 10, Science 4
Cancer is a condition that affects many people worldwide, as many as 39.6% of people will be diagnosed with some sort of cancer throughout their lives. Cancer can simply be described as a disease in which the cells in our body multiply at an alarming rate. Cells generally multiply in accordance with our body's growth and development, however, mistakes happen with the genetic coding in our cells. This causes old and unhealthy cells to continue living and multiplying, or it could cause an abnormal growth of new cells where they aren't needed. Since so many new cells are being made every day mistakes in genetic coding may appear in different parts of our bodies. This causes the cells to multiply beyond control and begin spreading throughout the body, turning the healthy cells into cancerous ones as it progresses and thus spreading cancer around the body, fatal if near vital organs. Cancer can either be hereditary or caused by environmental and lifestyle choices. Most
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However, it is possible to contract lung cancer from a parent or other close relative, although it is predominantly due to reasons within our control. The most common, yet easily prevented, a way of getting lung cancer is through smoking tobacco or inhaling other dangerous gases. Tobacco contains carcinogens which are substances that form cancerous cells in living tissues. Other things that emit carcinogens are asbestos, x-rays, arsenic, as well as car exhaust fumes. When we have been exposed to carcinogens a free radical molecule with an unpaired electron enters our body and attempts to steal electrons from other molecules. These free radicals damage the cells, especially the genes that allows them to multiply normally. This heavily increases cell multiplication, to the extent that a tumour of the cancerous cells starts to
Cancer is the term used to describe a group of diseases consisting of hundreds of ailments and although there exists so many different types of cancer, they all begin in a similar way. The body is made up of over a trillion cells, and cancer is the uncontrolled growth of malfunctioning cells in the body (Dawson, 1996). “Normal body cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. During the early years of a person’s life, normal cells divide faster to allow the person to grow. After the person becomes an adult, most cells divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells or to repair injuries” (American Cancer Society, 2012).
In general, the word cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases (What is cancer? n.d.. ). In our everyday life multiple thousands of your cells divide in order to keep the function of that certain cell ongoing. Through out all types of cancer, the body begins to force cells to divide without cease which then spreads to the surrounding tissue. Cancer can take form in any part of the human body, were thousands of cells are cancerous. Through time human cells grow and divide to form new ones as it is a requirement for the body to keep functioning. Therefore
Cancer starts when cells in a part of the body start to grow out of control. Cancer cell growth is different from normal cell growth. Instead of dying, cancer cells continue to grow and form new, abnormal cells. Cancer cells can also invade (grow into) other tissues, something that normal cells cannot do. Growing out of control and invading other tissues are what makes a cell a cancer cell. Cells become cancer cells because of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) damage. DNA is in every cell and it directs all the cell’s actions. In a normal cell, when DNA gets damaged the cell either repairs the damage or the cell dies. In cancer cells, the damaged DNA is not repaired, and the cell doesn’t die like it should. Instead, the cell goes on making new cells that the body doesn’t need. These new cells all have the same abnormal DNA as the first cell does.
Tumors are formed by the alteration of the body’s own cells. This can be caused by environmental factors such as radiation, like UV exposure, chemicals or viruses 1. These can disrupt genes that control growth and cause an increase in cell division and proliferation. Proto-oncogenes are those genes that control normal but essential cell processes that keep cell growth and death in check. Two important categories are apoptosis genes, which regulate cell death, and tumor suppressor genes, which decrease cell propagation 1 . If these genes were mutated to the point where they cannot produce a functioning protein, cell division would continue far past what it was supposed to and unhealthy cells would be allowed to live and continue to multiply. This is what creates a malignant tumor. Certain conditions in the body can also promote the growth of cancer cells. One of these is a deficiency of natural killer (NK) cells, which are able to kill cancer cells by creating a pore in the cell membrane with perforin and releasing granzymes into the cell. Low levels of perforin allow for tumor growth 1. Chronic inflammation can also ...
Usually, normal cells die when they are old or damaged, newly grow cells will replace them. However, if something goes wrong, there may be too many new cells when the body only needs a few of them, and the body can’t get rid of old cells, it builds up a mass of tissue called tumor. There are two types of tumor, begin or malignant. Begin tumors are usually not harmful to human body, however, malignant tumors could be life threatening. This type of tumors will invade organs and tissues around them, travel through blood vessels or lymph vessels, attach to other tissues and destroy them. Malignant tumors arise in breast tissues and cause breast cancer.
...of not only them but also other things. (Schulz 2005). Finally, in conclusion, gene mutations and alterations affect the body’s ability to control the rate of cell division, which therefore defines cancer the direct result of gene mutation. Cells affected by mutations are exposed to the reproduction into a tumour. Once the tumour expands in growth, more and more mutations occur in subsequent cell divisions and eventually become a dysplasia and instigates invasion into surrounding tissues. In simpler terms, the cancer is spread to other organs and parts of the body. Following this, metastasis occurs resulting in the cancer spreading through the person and/or animals blood stream and/or lymphatic systems and forms other colonies which thus secretes other harmful organelles, and also disrupts normal bodily function, and possibly leading to and eventuating in death.
Cancer occurs when cells divide uncontrollably. Cells keep dividing even though new cells are not needed. Change from normal to cancerous cells requires gene alterations. Altered genes and uncontrolled growth may lead to tumors.
By harnessing this normal cell process, scientists hope to have found an effective way to combat cancer. Cancer is a disease that affects human somatic cells. It causes the cells to divide uncontrollably and form masses known as tumors. There are two different types of cancer tumors. Some tumors are benign, and other tumors are malignant.
What is cancer? “Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues.” Cancer cell can spread to different parts of the body through blood and lymph systems. There are more than hundred different kinds of cancer. Most of the them are named after the organs.
Cancer When I think about the word cancer, I think about the sunset. It starts off shining in the morning but eventually conveys into darkness. The sky forms a shadow upon the sun causing the light to go dim and the glow you once experienced has disappeared into the twilight of nothingness. You enter a rough path in your life, one that you think you aren’t able to escape from, all because your body has developed a sickening, frightful, monstrous disease.
Cells are the building blocks of your body. Normally cells grow, divide, and die. Cancer begins when a normal cell mutates and is un able to repair itself. The damaged cell then keeps multiplying and creates a tumor. A malignant tumor is cancerous.
What is Cancer? : Cancer is a destructive disease characterized by out-of-control cell growth. There are more than 100 types of cancer all over the world & each of these is classified by the type of cell which is initially damaged. Each of them has different type of cure. Cancer is a result of uncontrollable grow of cell, which do not die.