Cancer: A blight but remediable disease due to technological progress in the medical field

Cancer is undoubtedly a serious life-threatening disease that has become unambiguously a global threat.

- Rupa Raj, Jayati Dwivedi and Ramendra K. Singh

It is the leading cause of death worldwide and in India, it is the second biggest killer after heart disease. According to the WHO Global Cancer Observatory report in 2020, cancer affected approx. 18 million lives in the world, and 1.32 million cases were reported in India where a major portion was shared by women. Among different types of cancer, oral, breast, lung, and cervical cancer are the most prevalent ones affecting human beings.

Knowing cancer

The word cancer came from the Greek word cancrum which means crab. It occurs when cell division in the body becomes undesirable, uncoordinated, and uncontrolled. Contrasting to normal cells, cancer cells have an irregular shape, uncontrolled and rapid growth, a darker and larger nucleus, an acidic cell environment, a craving for large amount of glucose, and proclivity for survival without oxygen. Cancer cells have mutated DNA sequences and as a sequel to this, the cells begin to divide and replicate at a much faster rate and lead to the development of abnormal lumps known as tumors. A cancerous tumor has billions of cancer cells and it has to divide thousand times when it can be felt by hand or become visible on an X-ray plate. Tumors are generally of 2 types: