Cancer Basics: What is Cancer?

Welcome to the Bedside Manners series on Cancer Basics. Our mission is to empower cancer patients and survivors through education.  What is cancer? In Latin, cancer means crab. It makes sense if you look closely at cancer cells under a microscope with what looks like “arms” and “claws”. Cancer is the malignant (bad) growth of the cell. These cells were once normal healthy cells that have gone rogue. These normal cells start to grow uncontrollably, non-stop, and unchecked by the body’s immune system. Cancer cells are like a child that gets away with a lot of bad behavior. Soon enough, these bad cells surround and affect the function of healthy tissue. Primary cancer is the original site where the cancer tumor originated. As these cancerous cells continue to...