Cancer may be a serious disease, but kids struggling from it are just like you! Cancer is not a contagious disease! It is a disease that happens inside someone's body. Sometimes you may not even be able to tell if someone has cancer. People with cancer have to fight cancer every day. They are so brave! We should help them fight cancer each and every day.

WHAT CANCER IS & HOW IT FORMS

Cancer develops when a mass of abnormal cells grow and multiply in certain areas of the body.

The word "cancer" is Greek for "crab". That is because cancer cells look like crabs -->

Normal red blood cell=

Cancer cell=

FUN FACT

Normal cells go through a cycle. First, they are born, then they divide and make new healthy cells. When the cell becomes damaged, they die.

However, cancer cells do NOT follow this cycle!

Cancer cells continue to divide and do not die when they are supposed to. They keep making odd cells.

When cancer cells start to form in a particular place, they can form a tumor (toom-ur)  -->

Tumors can be cancerous or non-cancerous. The word for a cancerous (harmful) tumor is malignant (muh-lihg-nant)  tumor. The word for a non-cancerous (non-harmful) tumor is benign (buh-NINE) tumor.

                                                                                           q

FUN FACT:

The word benign means friendly. They called non-cancerous tumors benign because benign tumors do not cause cancer or spread throughout the body.

              Benign --->                                                                       <--- Malignant 

However, when malignant (the bad tumors) grow on a tissue or organ, it can make work for that body part very difficult. The tumor may also eventually spread to another body part.

When cancer spreads to another part of the body that it was not originally in, it is called metastasis. (met-UH-stay-sis)

There are four stages of cancer:

Stage I (1): The malignant tumor is small, and is only in one area.

Stage II (2): The malignant tumor has grown, but it is still in the same area.

Stage III (3): The malignant tumor has grown even more, and has possibly spread to other areas of the body.

Stage IV (4): The malignant tumor has spread to other areas of the body.

THE TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR CANCER

There are 3 things people do to treat cancer. Currently, there is no cure for cancer, but doctors and scientists are trying very hard to find one. The three main cancer treatment options are:

1. Chemotherapy

2. Radiation therapy

3. Surgery

Chemotherapy (kee-MOH-fair-UP-y) or just chemo, is a type of medicine cancer patients use to help treat their cancer.

Chemotherapy was designed to stop cancer cells from growing. It usually works for some time, but it can kill good cells too. Chemotherapy is also the medicine that makes cancer patient's hair fall out. Hair falling out is a side effect of chemotherapy.

Radiation therapy (ray-dee-a-chon fair-UP-y) is a cancer treatment option where doctors use radiation to kill cancer cells.

Radiation in low doses helps cause cancer, but high doses of radiation can kill cancer cells (but it can also kill healthy cells too!) Nearby healthy cells can die after radiation therapy. However, radiation therapy has been affective for many patients with cancer.