Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control and form lumps called tumours. They may also grow and spread to other parts of the body.
There are many types of cancer and each type affects different parts of the body. The main types of cancer are carcinoma, sarcoma and leukemia (cancer of blood cells).
It’s important to know the difference between normal cells and cancer cells because this can help you understand how your doctor might treat the disease. The normal cells you have produce energy, make antibodies to fight off infections, and regulate your blood pressure and body temperature.
Some people have a genetic predisposition for certain kinds of cancer. This means that their genes have a higher chance of turning on genes that promote cancer growth and division.
These genes can be affected by a number of things. These include changes in proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and DNA repair genes.
Changes in these genes can lead to cancer cells that divide in an uncontrolled way, forming tumours.
In some cases, these mutations can happen in a single cell or a few cells within a tumor, but most cancers are caused by changes in multiple cells.
Often, these changes occur in the DNA in a cell’s nucleus. These changes are known as chromosomal rearrangements. They can affect the number of chromosomes, how they’re organized and how they’re used by the cell to do its job.
They can also change how the cell makes its own proteins and energy. This can allow cancer cells to survive and grow despite not getting enough nutrients or other essential substances they need.
These changes can also lead to cancer cells that have an unusual pattern of chromosomal rearrangements and chromosome breaks, which can give them an advantage over normal cells in terms of growth rates and ability to absorb and use nutrients.
One of the best ways to identify these abnormal changes is through a test that looks at the way the chromosomes are arranged in a sample of tissue. This can help doctors detect a number of types of cancers that have an abnormal chromosomal rearrangement pattern.
Another way to identify chromosomal rearrangements is to look at the size of the cell nucleus. Some cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, have large cell nuclei.
The size of the cell nucleus can also tell doctors how quickly a cell is growing and whether it’s growing in an organized, controlled manner or not. This can also tell doctors what kind of cancer it is, because a large cell nucleus is often associated with leukemia and other diseases that start in the blood.
When the size of the cell nucleus is too big, it can cause problems with the blood supply to the tumor and interfere with cancer treatment. The size of the cell nucleus can be determined with a test called microscopy, which takes a small sample of tissue and examines it with special equipment.