Download the meaning of cancer

HCA PLT SESSION 2/7/2015
Anne Morton
 Explain
how cancer cells start
 Explain how cells mutate
 Explain how cancer cells grow into tumours
 Changes
in 1 cell or a group of cells
 Signals in cells missing or faulty
 Causes cells to grow & multiply
 Produces a tumour
 Some cancers start in blood cells and bone
marrow
 Gene changes within cells
 DNA in our cells have 1000s of Genes
 Genes are coded messages telling the cells
how to behave
 Genes
control how cells divide and make new
cells in a healthy body
 When this goes wrong it is called a mutation
 This happens when a gene is damaged, lost
or copied twice
 6 different mutations happen before a
healthy cell becomes a cancer cell
 Many years for some damaged cells to grow
into a cancer
 By
chance when cells divide
 Cause external to the body like chemical in
tobacco smoke
 Inherit faulty genes which can increase
chances of getting cancer
 Genes can get damaged every day but cells
are good at repairing them
 Over time damage builds up
 Age increases risk of cancers
Benign
 Usually grow quite
slowly
 Don't spread to other
parts of the body
 Usually have a
covering made up of
normal cells
 Can be a problem if

Grow very large
 Become
uncomfortable or
unsightly
 Press on other body
organs
 Take up space inside
the skull (brain
tumour)
 Release hormones

Made up of cancer cells.
 Usually grow faster than benign tumours
 Spread into and damage surrounding tissues
 May spread to other parts of the body in the
bloodstream or though the lymph system to form
secondary tumours.
 Spreading to other parts of the body is called
metastasis
 Information on slides taken from
 http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/what-is-cancer/how-cancers-gro
