Cancer Surgery in India | Cancer Treatment Packages India

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is a medical term used to refer any one of a large number of diseases, characterized by the development of abnormal cells. Diseased cells grow and divide uncontrollably. They have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. The disease also has the ability to spread throughout your body by the means of lymph systems and blood. Cancer cannot be specifically regarded as one disease rather it is made up of many diseases.

Causes of Cancer

Cancer is caused by changes (mutations) to the DNA within cells. The DNA inside a cell contains a set of instructions guiding the cell on how to grow and divide. Any disruption in the instructions may allow a cell to become cancerous.

A gene mutation can instruct a healthy cell to:

Allow rapid growth. As cells grow and divide more rapidly, this creates many new cells that all have that same mutation.
Fail to stop uncontrolled cell growth. Normal cells know when to stop growing so that you have just the right number of each type of cell. Cancer cells lose control (tumor suppressor genes) that tell them when to stop growing. An alteration in a tumor suppressor gene allows cancer cells to continue growing.
Making mistakes when repairing DNA errors. DNA repair genes, look for errors in a cell's DNA and make required corrections. A mutation in a DNA repair gene may mean that other errors are not corrected, leading cells to become cancerous.

These mutations are the most common ones found in cancer. But many other gene mutations can contribute to causing cancer.

Gene mutations can occur for several reasons, for instance:

Gene mutations you are born with. You may be born with a genetic mutation that you have inherited from your parents. This type of mutation accounts for a small percentage of cancers.
Gene mutations that occur after birth. Most gene mutations occur after you are born and are not inherited. A number of forces can cause gene mutations, such as smoking, radiation, viruses, cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens), obesity, hormones, chronic inflammation and a lack of exercise.

The gene mutations you are born with and those that you acquire throughout your life, together cause cancer. If you have inherited a genetic mutation that predisposes you to cancer, that does not mean you are certain to get cancer. One or more, gene mutations combines to cause cancer. It is likely that this varies among cancer types. You are more likely to develop cancer when exposed to a certain cancer-causing substance.

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