A Brief Overview on Cancer and Metastasis

Aicen Swanith^*
*Correspondence: Aicen Swanith, Department of Oncology, Wright State University Bowshot School of Medicine, Dayton, USA, Email:

Commentary

Cancer is the world's second leading cause of morbidity and mortality, after only cardiovascular disease. In the United States, half of men and one-third of women will acquire cancer throughout their lives. Because to early detection and treatment, millions of cancer patients are living longer lives today. Cancer is not a new illness; it has affected individuals all over the world. Surface malignancies were surgically removed in the same way that they are now, according to inscriptions. Cancer occurs when normal cells in a certain section of the body begin to grow uncontrollably. There are several forms of cancer; all cancer cells continue to grow, divide, and re-divide rather than dying and forming new aberrant cells.

Some cancer cells frequently spread to other regions of the body via blood circulation or lymph arteries (metastasis), where they begin to develop. For example, if a breast cancer cell spreads to breast cancer rather than liver cancer. Cancer cells often arise from normal cells as a result of DNA damage. Most of the time, when DNA is broken, the body can repair it; however, damaged DNA is not repaired in cancer cells. People can also inherit damaged DNA from their parents, which explains why some malignancies are hereditary. Many times, though, a person's DNA is harmed as a result of environmental exposure, such as smoking. Cancer is frequently manifested as a solid tumour. Some cancers, such as leukemia (blood cancer), may not form tumours. Leukemia cells, on the other hand, affect the blood and blood-forming organs before spreading to other tissues where they grow. Some tumours are benign; whilst others are cancerous (noncancerous).Benign tumours do not develop and do not pose a threat to one's life.

Cancer cells can act in a variety of ways. Changes in lifestyle, such as stopping smoking and eating a low-fat diet, can lessen the chance of developing several forms of cancer. If cancer is detected at an early stage, it is easier to treat and patients have a better chance of living for many years. These are the genes that drive normal cells to grow uncontrollably and turn into cancer cells. They are caused by abnormalities in some normal cell genes known as proto-oncogenes (genes that typically govern how frequently a cell divides and the degree to which it differentiates).Hippocrates thought that the body had four humors (body fluids): blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Any imbalance in these fluids causes sickness, and an excess of black bile at a specific organ site was considered to induce cancer.

For nearly 1300 years, this cancer idea was accepted throughout the middle Ages. Autopsies were restricted for religious reasons during this time period, restricting understanding about cancer. This idea stated that cancer was caused by fluid called lymph. Life was thought to consist of the constant movement of fluids such as blood and lymph in the body. Tumors arise from lymph that is regularly sent out by the blood, according to the lymph theory, which was accepted in the 17th century.