What is Cancer?

Cancer is actually a group of many related diseases that all have to do with cells. Cells are the very small units that make up all living things, including the human body. There are billions of cells in each person's body.

Cancer happens when cells that are not normal grow and spread very fast. Normal body cells grow and divide and know to stop growing. Over time, they also die. Unlike these normal cells, cancer cells just continue to grow and divide out of control and don't die when they're supposed to.

Cancer cells usually group or clump together to form tumors (say: TOO-mers). A growing tumor becomes a lump of cancer cells that can destroy the normal cells around the tumor and damage the body's healthy tissues. This can make someone very sick.

Sometimes cancer cells break away from the original tumor and travel to other areas of the body, where they keep growing and can go on to form new tumors. This is how cancer spreads. The spread of a tumor to a new place in the body is called metastasis (say: meh-TASS-tuh-sis).

Is Cancer Contagious?

You can't catch it from someone else who has it — cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are. So don't be afraid of other people with cancer. You can talk to, play with, and hug someone with cancer.

How can Cancer be treated?

Cancer is treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation — or sometimes a combination of these treatments.

chemotherapy

The choice of treatment depends on:

> The type of cancer someone has (the kind of abnormal cells causing the cancer)

> The stage of the tumor (meaning how much the cancer has spread within the body, if at all)

How to get Better?

After surgery or treatment with radiation or chemotherapy, a doctor will then conduct tests to see if the cancer is still there. If there are no signs of cancer, then the cancer is in remission.

Remission (say: ree-MIH-shun) is a great word for anyone who has cancer. It means all signs of cancer are gone from the body.