The origin of the word Cancer is the Greek word ‘karkinos’ which translates to crab; owing to the similarity between crabs and swollen veins on tumors. In simple terms, cancer is the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body that may or may not metastasize (spread to other parts of the body from primary site). The branch of science that deals with the study of cancer is called oncology, where ‘onco’ means bulky mass or tumor.
Generally, cancer is caused by an accumulation of variations in the genome over the course of a lifetime. However, a single mutation is not enough to cause cancer in most cases. Lung, colon, breast, prostate, stomach and liver cancers are some of the most commonly occurring cancers. It might be worthy to note that not every cancer is the same! Finding a cure for one cancer may take us closer to the goal of curing all cancers, but it definitely is not a one cure for all situation. For the sake of simplicity, the large variety of cancers are classified into four major types based on the tissue where they originate. They are carcinoma (epithelial tissues), sarcoma (connective tissues), leukemia (blood or bone marrow) and lymphoma (lymph systems).
Let’s talk numbers. Cancer is now one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2019, there were 17 million new cases and 9.5 million cancer deaths. More than half of these deaths occur in economically flourishing countries. Data from surveys show that the number of cancer cases increase by 25% every 10 years. Although lifestyle and diet can be major factors contributing to these numbers, there is a possibility that the eradication of several other diseases like pneumonia and diarrheal diseases lead to increased life expectancy of humans. Cancers that would have probably gone by undiagnosed in the past are now diagnosed as we live longer lives!
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