WHAT IS CANCER

A brief description

Our bodies are made up of trillions of tiny building blocks called cells. There are hundreds of different types of cells, each performing a specific task. While these cells may look different from each other and have different job descriptions they all have one thing in common – they all divide, multiply and eventually die and reproduce in an orderly manner.

However, sometimes this order is disrupted by an abnormal cells and they begin to divide, multiply, die and reproduce without any order or control. When this happens cancer can develop.

There are many different types of cancer. The name given to a type of cancer depends on where in the body it forms e.g. leukemias develop in the blood, lymphomas in the lymphatic system etc.

Sometimes but not always a tumor is formed. A tumor is described as malignant if it is cancerous.