THE CANCER BATTLE

I'm urging you all to take up the fight against cancer and I thought that maybe I need to give you a little background information about cancer. The American Cancer Society defines it this way...."Cancer develops when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of control. Although there are many kinds of cancer, they all start because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells." The article goes on to tell us that we all have normal cells that grow, divide and die, but as we become adults this process slows and the cells divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells or maybe to repair injuries. Cancer cells, on the other hand, continue to grow and divide rapidly and instead of dying they can outlive our normal cells and continue to form their abnormal cells.
They initially develop due to damage to out DNA. DNA is in every cell and directs it to grow and divide. You can inherit damaged DNA, which explains the inherited cancers, but you can also damage your DNA from exposure to something that is in the environment...like smoking, for instance. Cancer usually forms some sort of tumor but there are cancers, like leukemia, that do not form tumors but instead these cells invade the blood and blood forming organs that circulate our blood through out body and tissues where they in turn grow. Some cancers may travel to other parts of the body where they grow and replace healthy normal tissue. This is what they refer to as metastasis and it does not matter where it spreads to it is always named from the part of the body where it first began. Not all tumors are cancerous...they can be benign (non-cancerous) tumors that do not spread (metastasize) to other parts of our body. They are rarely life threatening. So, as you can see, different types of cancer act or behave differently. They also grow at different speeds and react to different treatments. Each treatment is individualized for the type of cancer that it is fighting. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in our Country. There are millions of people that are living with cancer or that have had cancer. The sooner a cancer is discovered and the treatment gets underway...the better survival rate for the survivor. Help us....help them. Come out to the Columbus County Relay For Life and lend your support in the battle against cancer! I sure hope to see you there!