Cancer Overview

Choose a cancer topic below (click on it)
acute leukemia	choriocarcinoma	liver cancer	prostate cancer
bladder cancer	colon cancer	lung cancer	skin cancer
bone cancer	chronic leukemia	lymphomas	stomach cancer
brain cancer	esophageal cancer	melanoma	testicular cancer
breast cancer	kidney cancer	ovarian cancer	thyroid cancer
cervical cancer	larynx cancer (=throatcancer)	pancreatic cancer	uterine cancer

Cancer overview (choose a topic)	Introduction
average rates of new cancers	inherited cancer
alternative cancer treatments	other proven cancer therapies
cancer mortality	staging of cancer
cancer pain treatment	the TIL story
diagnosis of cancer	treatment of cancer
epidemiology

Introduction:

Cancer is a disease where one cell type within an organ has degenerated to the point where these cells have lost their ability to stop dividing. As these cells clone themselves, they invade first locally and eventually spread within the entire body through the blood vessels and the lymphatic system.

As they do this, clusters of new daughter tumors, called "metastases", are formed. These are colonies of the original tumor and their cells under the microscope look the same way as the original tumor. This is how the pathologist can diagnose cancer from a tumor cell sample. The cancer eventually invades vital organs such as the liver, the lungs, the bone marrow, brain, the kidneys or the adrenal glands. This destroys the healthy tissue and changes the metabolism leading to nausea, weight loss and weakness. This state of weakness worsens and leads to death as a result of liver failure, lung failure, bone marrow failure or cerebral edema (in the case of brain metastases).

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Cancer overview (top)

Cancer overview (choose a topic)

Not every cancer is equally common. There are some cancers that are rare such as liver cancer or testicular cancer (see table below). Other cancers are very common such as lung cancer, prostate cancer or breast cancer. To keep statistics on this over the decades, cancer clinics and cancer control agencies compile average annual rates of new cancers to see whether there is a trend with rates going up or down.

Average annual rates of new cancers in the United States (per 100,000 people)
type of cancer:	male	female	type of cancer:	male	female
bladder	34	10	lymphoid leukemias	8	5
breast		148	melanoma	11	9
cervical		19	myeloid leukemias	7	5
esophagus	18	5	ovarian		20
kidney	19	9	pancreas	19	15
large bowel (colon/rectum)	85	66	prostate	163
liver	7	3	stomach	20	9
lung	154	58	testicular	6
lymphomas (non-Hodgkins)	21	9	uterine		29

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Cancer overview (top)

Cancer overview (choose a topic)

Disclaimer:

This outline is only a teaching aid to patients and should stimulate you to ask the right questions when seeing your doctor. However, the responsibility of treatment stays in the hands of your doctor and you.

References:

1. JK McLaughlin et al. Int J Cancer 1995 Jan 17; 60(2): 190-193.

2. GN Wogan Semin Cancer Biol 2000 Jun 10(3): 201-210.

3. L Garfinkel et al. Stat Bull Metrop Insur Co 1999 Jul-Sep;80(3): 23-32.

4. G Torres-Mejiha et al. Int J Cancer 2000 Sep 15;87(6): 869-873.

5. M Feuring-Buske et al. Ann Hematol 2000 Apr 79(4): 167-174.

6. RJ Kreitman et al. J Clin Oncol 2000 APR 18(8): 1622-36.

7. SA Rosenberg et al. Ann Surg 1998 Sep 228(3): 307-319.

8. K Fujita et al. Clin. Cancer Res 1995 May 1(5): 501-507.

9. J van der Zee et al. Lancet 2000 Apr1; 355(9210): 1119-1125.

10. H Ge and J Huang J Surg Oncol 2000 Jul 74(3): 193-195.

11. P Hillemanns et al. Int J Cancer 2000 March 1; 85(5): 649-653.

12. K Moghissi et al. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 1999 Jan 15(1): 1-6.

13. Cancer: Principles &Practice of Oncology.4th edition. Edited by Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. et al. Lippincott, Philadelphia,PA, 1993. Chapter 70:"Unsound methods of cancer treatment", page 2734 -2747.

14. Cancer: Principles&Practice of Oncology. 5th edition, volume 1. Edited by Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. et al. Lippincott-Raven Publ., Philadelphia,PA, 1997. The data from the tables on p. 236-237 were condensed and the figures rounded off to the nearest full number.

15. C Dong et al. Int J Cancer 2001 Apr 1;92(1):144-150

Last Modified: Nov. 19, 2006