What is Cancer?

Cancer is a general name for a group of diseases where normal cells due to some reason become abnormal and grow in an uncontrolled fashion. Untreated cancers cause serious illness, disability and death.

Not all growths (tumours) are cancerous. They can be benign (not cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Benign tumours are slow-growing and not as dangerous as malignant tumours which usually grow rapidly and may spread to other body sites.

How does cancer spread?

Cancer may spread by directly invading the adjacent organs. Cancer cells often travel to other parts of the body by getting into the body’s blood stream/lymphatic vessels, where they grow and form new tumours. The process of cancer spread is called metastasis or invasion.