Cancer effects everyone in the world differently, either you or your love one will end up

getting cancer. In the 1900 the leading cause of death in the United States was, influenza,
pneumonia, and tuberculosis. About 50 years later it was heart disease and cancer. We have
found cures for most of the disease to this day. Malignancy sadly is one of the disease that is
still casting a shadow of death over our shoulders. In 2012, 15% of the deaths worldwide was
due to cancer. Sadly the death toll will rise as the years come. (Brody)
Cancer harms your body because when damage cells divide uncontrollably and it forms
lumps and masses of tissue that are tumors. There are over 100 types of cancers that one can has
a chance of getting cancer. Tumors can interfere with the body if the grow. They can affect the
digestive, nervous, and circulatory systems. Tumors that stay in one spot are usually benign.
Two things make tumors most dangerous, or malignant, first one is invasion. Invasion is when
the cancerous cells move through the body using the blood or lymph systems. The second is
called angiogenesis thats when cell manages to divide and grow making new blood vessels to
feed itself. If all that happens and the tumor has successfully spread to other parts of the body
and grows thats called metastasized. That whole process is called metastasis, when it gets to
this point that means its now at serious stage and is going to be extremely hard to treat. (MNT)
In 2012 scientist reported in Nature Communications that they discovered an important
clue as to why cancer spreads. It has to do with the stickiness. The interaction between cells
become unstuck and with the original tumor. So they become dislodged and move to a different
site and start to form in that new area. (MNT)
There are questions that are being asked in the National Cancer Institute is willing to pay
other scientist to answer questions. The director of the NCI is Harold Varmus and he is going to
pay $17.5 million to whoever can answer questions that he pooled together from other scientist.
Some of the questions that he is asking is: How many cancers are caused by viruses? How are
obesity and cancer connected? Why do cancer survivors have a higher risk of developing a
second cancer? (Preston)
Several viruses are linked with cancer, because we know that viruses are can lead to
cancer we have come up with vaccines to prevent people from getting cancer. But the trick is, to
give them the vaccine to stop the sickness before you end up getting sick with cancer. One virus
that you can get can cause cancer is HPV which can cause cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the
second most common cancer in women (the first is breast cancer). HBV is more likely to cause
symptoms of liver disease which can also lead to cancer. So theyll give you medicine to slow
the liver disease symptoms down which will then hopefully reduce your risk of getting cancer.
They say that if you have HIV then you can have a chance of getting cancer as well. Because
HIV weakens the immune system, you need a strong immune system to fight off cancer and
other viruses. So if you have HIV your body cant fight off the cancer cells so it could possibly
allow a serious tumor to grow. Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) also known as Kaposi sarcoma
(KS) has been found in nearly all tumors. KS is a rare slow growing cancer that forms under the
skin as reddish-purple or blue-brown tumors. Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV) was discovered
in 2008. It was found in a rare and aggressive skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma. They
say that nearly all Merkel cell carcinoma cancers are linked together with the infection of MCV.
(ACS)

Being obese or over weight increases your chances to getting cancer it also increases the
growth of the cancer as well. The reason why it causes the cancer cells to grow is because
people who are obese have more fat tissue that produces more hormones. The types of cancers
that you can get from being obese is: breast cancer, colon and rectum, kidney, esophageal,
pancreatic, endometrium, thyroid, and gallbladder. A study done in 2007 showed that about
34,000 cases for cancer in men and 50,500 cases for women had to do of obesity. (NCI)
Obesity is linked together in postmenopausal breast cancer. The reason for this is
because of the increased levels of estrogen. After menopause the ovaries stop producing
hormones, the fat tissue becomes the most important source for estrogen. So obese women have
more fat tissues so there for the estrogen levels are way too high which leads to the rapid growth
estrogen breast tumors. (NCI)
They dont really know why endometrial cancer (lining of the uterus) is higher in obese
women than women who arent. They think it has to do with having diabetes and also low levels
of physical activity. (NCI)
After battling cancer and beating it, and then getting a different type of cancer is
extremely odd. People assume that once you battle it for the first time in a certain area, itll
spread and thats why youll get it for the second time. But that is not always the case, its
actually because they ended up getting a second cancer which is horrible. There can be a bunch
of risk factors as to why you can get a second cancer. It could be because of aging, family
history, prior treatment, and lifestyle. (NCCN)
Learning all this about cancer really opened my eyes. Its a disease that is extremely
deadly and they have no real cure for cancer. They can put you through chemo, radiation, bone
marrow, surgery, and more. When they do that, you just have to hope that the cancer isnt too
far advanced, and that all of that stuff will shrink and get rid of it. Thats why its so important
to try and catch it early enough you can save your own life. If you are seeing any different
changing with your body and you have no idea why its happing, go see a doctor. Make sure you
get your checkups every year to make sure you dont have breast cancer or prostate. Do
anything and everything to make sure that you stay healthy. Cancer is a scary topic to talk about
because of how deadly it is. When you get it, you go into shock because you never thought that
you could ever get something like that. Thats why you have to make sure that you know your
family background get checked every year and see a doctor if something looks wrong. The
hardest part about cancer, is that you dont usually show symptoms of in the earlier stages. So
you never know if you have it until its too late.

Works Cited
Elizabeth Preston. August 26, 2011. Discover Magazine. Sciences Biggest Cancer Questions
Herb Brody. June 17, 2014. Scientific America. Cancer: The March on Malignancy
Obesity and Cancer Risk. National Cancer Institute. N.p, n.d Web. 03 Nov. 2014
Understanding Your Risk of Developing Secondary Cancers. National Comprehensive Cancer
Network. N.p., n.d Web. 06. Nov. 2014
Viruses That Can Lead to Cancer. American Cancer Society. N.p, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014
What Is Cancer? What Causes Cancer?. Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d.
Web. 05 Nov. 2014