What exactly is cancer?

[Mikester]

How and why do people get it.

Scary that 1 in 3 people are directly affected by it.

[lazytramp789]

cancer is an invasion of nearby healthy cells by cells with unrestricted growth i.e. cells that do not die by natural causes. as the invading cells can five a crab's claw like appearance, it is given the title 'cancer' - like the sign of the zodiac.

[lo_mcg]

Cancer refis an umbrella term for a large number of diseases caused when normal cells change so that they grow in an uncontrolled way. This uncontrolled growth causes a tumour to form These cells are able to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. Cancer can spread throughout your body.

Nobody knows what causes cancer, or why particular individuals get it; smoking has been linked to lung cancer and excessive sun exposure to skin cancers, and up to 10% of cancer cases are due to hereditary factors but other than that we're still pretty much in the dark as to its causes.

Any claims that cancer is caused by diet or other lifestyle factors are speculation and reflect the prejudices and fears of the person making the claim.

It is a lot easier and less scary for people who haven't had cancer to 'blame the victim' by putting an individual's cancer down to lifestyle factors like diet than it is for them to accept that cancer is a largely random disease that can strike any of us at any time.

I once thought that my organic vegan diet would protect me against cancer. It didn't.

Yes, it's all very scary