Cancer Term Paper

My term paper is on all you need to know about cancer. The definition of cancer is a group of diseases in which cells grow and divided without respect to normal limits and invade and destroy adjacent tissues and may even spread to other locations in the body. Cancer causes about thirteen percent of all deaths. In 2007 alone 7.6 million in the world died of cancer. Cancer can even affect animals and plants not just humans. Depending on your age it can vary on what type of cancer you get but it affects all ages even fetuses. Abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells are close to nearly all causes of cancer. Tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents are what may cause these abnormalities due to the effects of carcinogens. Some other ones are errors in DNA replication, being inherited, or even present in all cells from birth. Two common classes of genes are affected by genetic abnormalities found in cancer. Tumor suppressor genes are often found in cancer cells. These genes result in loss of normal functions to those cells in which it affected. Cancer is usually classified according to the tissue from which the cancerous cells originate, as well as the normal cell type they most resemble. A tissue biopsy taken by a pathologist tell the definite diagnosis if you have cancer. Depending on the specific type, location, and stage most cancers can be treated and some even cured. Some of the ways cancer is treated is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. For different varieties of cancer more treatments are becoming more specific as research develops. Some of the most common cancers in males are prostate cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and bladder cancer. Some of the most common cancers in female are breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and ovarian cancer. Cancer can also affect young children and adolescents, but it is rare. Although childhood cancers increased nineteen percent...