American cancer association

Resource for American cancer association and fun search portal . Continue for our current list for the American cancer association

Love Poems, Love Calculator

Arts And Entertainment

Health And Fitness

Home Based Business

Self Improvement

Dating, Love, Sexuality

Relationships

Funny Pictures

MSN Nick Names,Display Pictures,Emoticons,Background

For most of the cancers, it cannot be told which event was the initial cause. However, with molecular biology, it is possible to characterize the mutations within a tumor, and to a certain extent predict its behavior. For example, about half of the tumors are deficient in the tumor suppressor gene p53, also known as "the guardian of the genome". This is associated with poor prospects for the patient, since those tumor cells are unlikely to go into apoptosis (programmed cell death) after they are damaged by therapy. There are more mutations that make a tumor more malignant. Telomerase mutations enable a tumor cell to divide indefinitely. Other mutations enable the tumor to grow new blood vessels to feed it, or to detach from the surrounding tissue, spreading to other parts of the body.

The field of medicine concerned with the treatment of cancer is oncology. Cancer has become an important problem with the rise in life expectancy, as the abovementioned mutations become more likely the longer a person lives. Though great progress in treatment has been made, most cancers in advanced stages remain incurable and ultimately fatal.

Treatment of cancer typically involves surgery to remove tumors and nearby lymph nodes to which the cancer may have spread, combined with radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy. The latter two target cells in the body that are rapidly dividing. This includes the cancer cells but also certain healthy ones, which is the reason for the severe side effects of these treatments.