Cancer: The Disease and its Treatment

While cancer comes in many forms, all types of the disease have one thing in common: the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. The growth of these abnormal cells stems from damaged DNA. Damaged DNA is repaired in normal cells, but in cancer cells, the DNA remains damaged. This damage can be inherited, but is more often the result of environmental factors, like exposure to cigarette smoke.

Cancer usually begins as a tumor, and may sometimes spread to other parts of the body, or metastasize. Since cancers begin in different ways, are located in different parts of the body, and have different ways of spreading, treatments come in several different forms. The sooner cancer is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin, and the more effective it can be.

Your treatment will depend on what kind of cancer you have, where it is located, and what stage the disease is in. Often, more than one type of treatment (surgery, radiation, biologic therapies, chemotherapy) is used to treat cancer. Since the effects of proton therapy are so concentrated, it is often effective in patients whose cancer has not spread to other parts of the body. Watch a video explanation.

A major part of effective cancer treatment is a thorough understanding of the diagnosis and treatment options by the patient. For more information, be sure to ask your doctor about your prognosis, recommended treatments, the pros and cons of different treatments, and how the treatment will affect your life.