Question: Is there any link or pattern between all of the different cancers?

Angela Stokes answered on 13 Nov 2014:

Hi alb*456

There are many types of cancer, some grow quickly and some grow slowly – quickly growing cancers are in general more difficult to treat.

All cancers are ‘staged’. In stage one the cancer cells stay in one location, this might be the breast for example this is an early stage cancer. The tumour could then spread to other parts of the body, which we call stage two. When the it has spread to muscles we call this stage 3 and when organs such as liver and kidneys are involved it is called stage 4 – this is usually fatal. One way to look at cancer is to imagine it as a weed which is gradually destroying a garden. The weeds take up space and use nutrients and kill off healthy plants….and when you have got rid of it there is also a possibility of it coming back.

The one thing all cancers have in common is that something causes the DNA in a cell to become damaged, this causes it to reproduce too fast, and all of the new cells have the same DNA damage so they all reproduce too fast too, and so you have a fast growing ball of cells which is out of control – a tumour. This tumour will put pressure on any body parts or organs nearby and damage them – or if it infiltrates the organ it can be deadly.