What is cancer?

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Causes

Q. What is cancer?

A. Cancer is a general term, like fever. The morbid growths to which the term cancer is commonly applied differ much in character as well as in appearance.  Growths which recur when they are removed, or which show a tend­ency to invade the tissues and to develop similar growths in different parts of the body, are known as malignant as distinguished from be­nign growths which do not invade the tissues, but are generally enclosed within capsules, and purely local growths which, when removed do not recur. Malignant growths include quite a large family of neoplasms (new growths) which are recognizable by their microscopic structure and often also by their gross appear­ance. The different forms of cancer or malig­nant disease differ in the degree of their malig­nancy or tendency to recurrence and some forms are much more curable than others. Skin cancer for example, or epithelioma, when con­fined to the skin is almost certainly curable by any one of several different methods, the best of which are the x-ray, radium, and the application of carbon dioxide ice. Successful treat­ment of cancer depends upon the application of thoroughgoing measures at the earliest possible stage of the disease. In any case in which there is the slightest ground for the suspicion of can­cer an able surgeon should be promptly con­sulted.

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