Cancer

Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of disease in which a group of cells display the traits of uncontrolled growth (growth and division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumor, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. Cancer may affect people at all ages, even fetus, but risk for the more common varieties tends to increase with age. Cancer causes about 13% of all deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007. Apart from humans, forms of cancer may affect other animals and plants. Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects... full article at wikipedia