Tumors and Cancers

Abnormal growth of tissues results in swelling of the tissues and organs. This swelling is known as a tumor. Tumors do not always lead to cancers.

There are two main types of tumors.

Benign tumors

Malignant tumors

Benign tumors

A lot of benign tumors are not harmful. They are developed by expansion. But benign tumors are fatal when they occur inside the brain. When a benign tumor occurs in a glandular epithelium it is known as an adenoma. Chondroma is the benign tumor which occurs in the cartilages and it is a mesenchymal tumor.

Malignant tumors

Malignant tumors are the life threatening ones. They are also known as cancerous tumors. So these tumors results in cancers. Mesenchymal malignant tumors are known as sarcomas and carcinomas are the epithelial malignant tumors.
When consider the process of occurring malignant tumors first of all transformation takes place. There is a malignant change in the normal cells during transformation. Then rapid growth of the transformed cells occurs. Malignant tumor invades the tissues. This is known as local invasion. After that the tumor spread in to the other tissues and organs of the body. This is called distant metastasis.
The major sites of the body that are more prone to get affected by metastasis are liver, lungs, bones and brain. Therefore secondary carcinomas occur in these sites.
The spread of tumors/ metastasis mainly occurs via lymphatic spread and vascular spread. Apart from that transcoelomic spread and perineural spread can be occurred.
Lymphatic spread is most common in metastasis of carcinomas. During lymphatic spread, tumor cells follow the lymphatic drainage of the target organ and enter in to lymph nodes. So lymph nodes get enlarged. For instance spread of breast cancer cells in to axillary lymph nodes can be considered. Vascular spread is also known as haematogenous spread. Sarcomas mainly spread via vascular spread. They get disseminated as tumor emboli. Also there can be a growth of tumor calls as a cord along the blood vessels.

Cancers

Malignant tumors lead to cancers. Therefore cancers occur due to the loss of regulation of cell division. Considerable incidence of cancer related deaths are reported for past few years around the world.
There is a lot of predisposing factors for cancers such as usage of tobacco and alcohol, lack of physical activity, polluted environment, consumption of artificial foods, radiation. Also there are some viral causes which lead to the occurrence of tumors. Human papilloma virus causes carcinoma of the cervix.
Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B viral infections results in hepatocellular carcinoma.

How to reduce the risk of getting cancers

It is advisable to maintain a healthy life style to prevent cancers. A diet without carcinogenic substances should be consumed. It is important to maintain a healthy weight and consumption of alcohol should be avoided.
Smoking is a main risk factor for lung cancers. Passive smokers are also vulnerable to get lung cancers. Therefore smoking should be prevented. It is easy to reduce the spread of cancers when diagnosed early. So awareness of symptoms of cancers is very important.


Written by Dr:SjU [MBBS (UOP -UDG)]

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