Cancer statistics

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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.

Malignant tumors such as carcinoma or sarcoma, lymphoma or leukemia originate from a cell or a group of cells in a multicellular organism that has several distinct properties:

evading apoptosis
Unlimited Growth Potential
self-sufficiency of growth factors
insensitivity to anti-growth factors
increased cell division rate
altered differentiation (specialization) ability
no ability for contact inhibition
ability to invade neighbouring tissue
ability to build metastases
ability to promote blood vessel growth (angiogenesis)

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.

CancerSource
Provides information about prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and symptom management. Offers access to news, support groups and email lists.
Romanian Cancer League
Eastern European organization with aims of education, prevention, treatment, support and advocacy.
Cancer Survivors Project
A community resource for long term survivors. Includes access to the ACOR email discussion group.
Don't Say That Word
Provides an online forum on cancer, information, personal stories, poetry and remembrance pages. Graphics-intensive.
The "Y" Cancer Foundation
AOL discussion group aimed at providing information and support.

Cancer statistics