Valentine Group Health
Discover the Keys to Managing Your Health
Acute and Chronic illnesses and injury can adversely affect your physical, emotional, relational and spiritual well being. Taking control over your life is vital to gaining well being and living life to the fullest. With good preventive care, early intervention, and the many treatment options available, management of many illnesses can be successful and provide individuals with a quality of life that allows for continued living with dignity
Cancer. Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.
Cancer is not just one disease but many diseases. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start – for example, cancer that begins in the colon is called colon cancer; cancer that begins in melanocytes of the skin is called melanoma.
Cancer types can be grouped into broader categories. The main categories of cancer include:
- Carcinoma – cancer that begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs. There are a number of subtypes of carcinoma, including adenocarcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma.
- Sarcoma – cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.
- Leukemia – cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.
- Lymphoma and myeloma – cancers that begin in the cells of the immune system.
- Central nervous system cancers – cancers that begin in the tissues of the brain and spinal cord.
Retrieved from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer
