AWARENESS AND PREVENTION OF CANCER

CHAPTER ONE
OVERVIEW OF CANCER
Cancers has become more threatening or detrimental to human race. Over one million people in the world die of this terrible disease annually though there is no affirmed cause or causes of cancers, but there are some substances that have been predicted to increase ones risk of getting cancer. Here lies the link between eating habit and cancer.
In most cases, people develop cancer when they are much older.
However, they have often been exposed to the factors that predisposed them to cancer when they were younger e.g. during adolescents. it is therefore important for adolescents to know about factors which can lead to development of cancer later in life so that they can avoid them.( The link to avoiding cancer or possibly preventing it).
One other disease condition that has been suspected to increase the risk of certain cancers in human is obesity. What causes obesity? If we can know the cause of obesity, we can actually prevent it and hence subsequently preventing the risk of getting obesity – linked cancer. Cancer can be prevented.
1.DEFINITION OF CANCER
What is Cancer? Cancer is an abnormal growth which can occur in any part of the body. Cancer itself is a class of disease in which a group of cells displays uncontrolled growth, invasion and sometimes metastasize. Some cancers grow fast and lead to death in a short period of time (malignant cancer or tumors), others grow relatively slowly(benign cancers) . Cancers are tumors (just flesh)
1.1TYPES OF CANCER
Several types of cancers have been indentified based on their site of found occurrence (where they occur or are found). But basically, there are two types of cancers which are:
(i) Primary Cancer: This is the cancer cell that is found growing where it stated in the body.
(ii) Secondary Cancer: This is the place where cancer spreads to and starts growing.
Some, other common types of cancer based on site of occurrence include: Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, cancer of lungs, Prostate cancer, liver cancer, and cancer of the Food pipe(esophagus).

1.2HOW CANCER SPREADS
The main reason cancer can be difficult to cure is that it can spread to another part of the body away from where it started. There are three main ways a cancer spread; local spread, through the blood stream and through the lymphatic system.
Cancer occurs as a result of mutations, or abnormal changes, in the genes responsible for regulating the growth of cells and keeping them healthy. The genes are in each cell’s nucleus, which acts as the “control room” of each cell. Normally, the cells in our bodies replace themselves through an orderly process of cell growth: healthy new cells take over as old ones die out. But over time, mutations can “turn on” certain genes and “turn off” others in a cell. That changed cell gains the ability to keep dividing without control or order, producing more cells just like it and forming a tumor.
A tumor can be benign (not dangerous to health) or malignant (has the potential to be dangerous). Benign tumors are not considered cancerous: their cells are close to normal in appearance, they grow slowly, and they do not invade nearby tissues or spread to other parts of the body. Malignant tumors are cancerous. Left unchecked, malignant cells eventually can spread beyond the original tumor to other parts of the body.