Cancer is not just one but a group of many related diseases that takes place when the growth of the cells are not normal and spread very rapidly. Normal body cells grow and divide to make more cells only when the body needs them. But cancer cells are different.
- Cancer cells have gene mutations that turn the cell from a normal cell into a cancer cell.
- A cancer cell doesn’t act like a normal cell. It starts to grow and divide out of control instead of dying when it should.
- Cancer cells usually group or clump together to form tumours and a growing tumour becomes a lump of cancer cells that can destroy the normal cells around the tumour and damage the body’s healthy tissues.
- As cancer cells divide, a tumour will develop and grow. Cancer cells have the same needs as normal cells. As a tumour grows, it needs more blood to bring oxygen and other nutrients to the cancer cells. The cancer cells send signals for a tumour to make new blood vessels.
- When tumours grow and get bigger. It also leads cancer cells to get into the blood and spread more easily to other parts of the body which is called metastasis.
