Cancer Facts
Informative and Important Cancer Facts
If you are diagnosed with cancer, these cancer facts will arm you with hope and help you move on with your life.
• Cancer starts in cells, which together make up your bodies' tissues. In turn, tissues form the organs of our body.
• If your body is working normally, cells go through a process of growing and dividing, and dying off as they are replaced. Sometimes this process goes awry, and new cells are formed before old cells die off. These are cells that are not needed, and they form clusters of tissue called tumors.
• Tumors may be referred to either as benign or malignant. Cancer facts can tell you that generally a benign tumor is not cancer, and rarely threatens your life.
• Malignant tumors are normally more serious, and could threaten your life. Tumors may be removed, but there is always a chance that they will grow back.
• When you have a malignant tumor, if it is not removed, the cancer cells may spread to organs or tissues and to other parts of your body.
• Generally, cancer is named for the part of your body that it first invades. If it begins in the lungs, then it is classified as lung cancer.
• There are several different treatments that are used if you develop cancer. Facts will tell you that those methods include surgery to cut the cancerous tissue out, and radiation which is used on the cancerous cells. Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses drugs to combat cancer, and hormones are occasionally used to treat cancer as well.
• Some people also choose to participate in clinical studies to treat their cancer. These are studies where people are treated with experimental drugs or procedures.
• The doctors who run clinical trials can't tell you if the treatments will succeed or not. That's why they are called “trials”. But thousands of people have benefited from clinical trials, and so have millions who are now using treatments which were at one time clinical trials.
• One of your first steps after you are diagnosed with cancer is to decide what hospital or treatment center you want to use for your treatments. When dealing with cancer, facts help you decide which place is the best for you individually.
• If you are unsure of the diagnosis which has been presented to you, you may always seek a second opinion from a different doctor or facility. This will help to arm you with all the cancer facts that pertain to your case.
• Generally, a larger facility has seen more types of cancer, and may be a better choice for your treatments. If you hail from a small town, you may need to go out of your local area to find a treatment center that is best suited to your needs.
• Wherever you go for treatment, your family and friends should provide a steady support system for you, as you battle cancer.