Is cancer a condition?

Cancer is a condition where cells in a specific part of the body grow and reproduce uncontrollably. The cancerous cells can invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue, including organs. Cancer sometimes begins in one part of the body before spreading to other areas. This process is known as metastasis.

What are cancers driven by?

Cancer is driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations that allow cells to overproliferate and escape mechanisms that normally control their survival and migration.

What is the difference between dysplasia and cancer?

A term used to describe the presence of abnormal cells within a tissue or organ. Dysplasia is not cancer, but it may sometimes become cancer. Dysplasia can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on how abnormal the cells look under a microscope and how much of the tissue or organ is affected.

Is neoplasia the same as cancer?

An abnormal mass of tissue that forms when cells grow and divide more than they should or do not die when they should. Neoplasms may be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer).

Is cancer binary or a continuum?

Another way to think of cancer as NOT binary, but as a continuum as others have suggested is that it is reversible, both at the individual cell level and higher; thus, as more than one cell in the body heads towards cancer, others may join in, recruiting new blood flow for example,…

What is biliary cancer and what causes it?

Biliary cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the bile duct system, which connects the liver, gallbladder, and small intestine, moving bile – a fluid that helps digest fats – to the small intestine. While relatively uncommon, approximately 15,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with this disease each year.

What is the difference between benign tumors and cancerous tumors?

Many cancers form solid tumors, but cancers of the blood, such as leukemias, generally do not. Benign tumors do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. When removed, benign tumors usually don’t grow back, whereas cancerous tumors sometimes do. Benign tumors can sometimes be quite large, however.

What is the difference between normal cells and cancer cells?

Cancer cells differ from normal cells in many ways. For instance, cancer cells: grow in the absence of signals telling them to grow. Normal cells only grow when they receive such signals. ignore signals that normally tell cells to stop dividing or to die (a process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis ).