By Andrew Stegenga, Fabian Rodriguez, Marlon Loyola, Micheal Kouzmanov

CHAPTER 17 SECTION 8

INTRO• Millions today are fighting battles with cancer, unlike in the past where a future with

cancer was bleak. But unfortunately, preventing cancer is far easier that curing it.

• Most cancers result from conditions in peoples lives. For example lung cancer cases occur in people who smoke.

• There are over one-hundred diseases labeled as cancer, each have different names based on its location in the body. Some are named for the tissues they corrupt with the suffix –oma meaning tumor added on.

• Cancers of the immune system - lymphomas

• Cancers of blood-forming organs - leukemias

• Cancers of the glands and body linings, like the skin or the lining of the digestive tract, - carcinomas.

• Cancers of connective tissue, including bones, ligaments, and muscles, - sarcomas

DEVELOPMENT OF CANCER • Cancer begins with a change in normal cells.

• After change cell response accelerates far out of control.

• Steps of development -

1) Exposure to a carcinogen

2) Entry of the initiator(carcinogen) into a cell

3) Change of the cells genetic material. The change may be a mutation.

4) Possible speeding up of cancer formation by a promoter

5) Out-of-control multiplication of the cells

6) Tumor of other malignancy formation.

• All of the danger of cancer lies within a persons cells, so cancer itself is not contagious to other people, but once a cancer forms it can spread to many parts of the body.

• Unlike normal cells, cancer cells cannot stop dividing and multiplying. This results in a tumor of cancerous cells.

HARMLESS AND CANCEROUS TUMORS• A benign is a harmless tumor. It does not spread, it is well defined, and it is a solid mass

in and external membrane.

• Cancerous tumors are malignant. They present a threat to health. If a cancerous tumor gains in size it competes with normal tissue’s oxygen and space.

• With time cancer interrupts normal function of tissues organs. For example the tumor may block the intestinal contents. In cancer of the brain the growing tumor threatens thought processes and control of body.

TUMORS- THE SPREAD OF CANCER• In addition to invading adjacent tissues cancerous cells brake off from original site and

ride body fluids to colonize new areas.

• Beginning of cancer only sheds a few cells. The larger it gets the more cells shed off to find different areas to contaminate in other areas of the body. At this point it is said that the cancer has metastasized.

• Cancer causes death when it interrupts the functioning of vital organs such as the blood-building organs, lungs, or brain.

TUMORS- THE ROLE OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM• Immune system watches for escaped cancer cells. The system works to stop these

dangerous travelers before they lodge themselves in new, important tissues.

• It can only catch a certain number of cancer cells at any time. When a the immune defenses fail, that is when cancer treatment is needed.

• The success of treatment depends on whether or not it gets under way before the cancer cell has metastasized.

• After the initiating event some cancers take as long as 20 years to develop.

• Because of this it is very difficult for doctors to find the causes of these cancers.

VOCAB1) Cancer- a disease in which abnormal cells multiply out of control, spread into surrounding tissue and other body

parts and disrupt normal functioning of one or more organs.

2) Tumor- an abnormal mass of tissue that can live and reproduce itself, but performs no service to the body

3) Malignancy- a dangerous cancerous growth that sheds cells into body fluids and spreads to new locations to start new cancer colonies

4) Melanoma- an especially dangerous cancer of the pigmented cells of the skin, related to sun exposure in people with light colored-skin

5) Myeloma- a cancer originating in the cells of bone marrow

6) Lymphomas- cancers that arise in organs of the immune system

7) Leukemia- cancers that arise in the blood cell-making tissue

8) Carcinomas- cancers that arise in the skin, body chamber linings, or glands

9) Sarcomas- cancers that arise in the connective tissue cells, including bones, ligaments, and muscles

10) Initiator- a carcinogen, an agent required to start the formation of cancer

11) Mutation- a change in cell’s genetic material. Once the genetic material has changed, the change is inherited by the offspring of that cell

12) Promoter- a substance that assists in the development of malignant tumors, but does not initiate them on its own

13) Benign- noncancerous, not harmful; a description of a tumor that is not able to spread from one area to another

14) Metastasized- when speaking of cancer cells, a term that means the cancer cells have migrated from one part of the body to another,, and started new growths just like the original tumor

CITATION• Webb, Frances. Health Making Life Choice. Second. Illinois: NTC, 2000. 812. Print.