Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic.
Today we're explaining something that is a little close to my heart.
This is something I didn't really know anything about, something I needed to do research into.
To give you context... In December of 2019, my mother passed away from cancer.
And I had no idea what that was. I didn't know how cancer works. I didn't understand the terms that the doctors were saying at me.
So I went through that, kind of not sure what was happening. So I thought I would create this to help those of you that are facing this,
those of you that have someone going through this, those of you just curious about this...
So hopefully this is helpful. We're going to explain what cancer is, we're going to talk about the types of cancer,
and then the types of treatment of cancer and what that looks like. So let's dive in.
Although there are many different types of cancer, they all share a similar trait.
Cancer is ultimately the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body.
In a healthy body, cells age and die, being constantly replaced by new cells.
Sometimes this process is halted, as the aging cells don’t die.
Instead, they continue to grow and expand in places they’re not supposed to be.
New cells are created when they’re not needed.
There are five main categories of cancer, depending on where this abnormal growth starts to occur.
Carcinomas begin in the skin, or potentially in tissues that might line the internal organs.
Sarcomas develop in places like bones, or even cartilage, fat, muscle, or other types
of connective tissue.
Leukemia is a blood cancer, starting in the blood itself or in bone marrow.
A lymphoma starts in one’s immune system, while a central nervous system cancer develops
in the brain and spinal cord.
The same thing is happening, this growth and duplication of abnormal cells, but it’s
called something different based on where this growth is happening.
When these cells are being created, it can often create a mass, called a tumor.
The only type that often doesn’t include masses is leukemia, in the blood and bone marrow.
These tumors are divided into two types: malignant and benign.
Malignant means that this mass can affect the nearby areas, it’s a threat to the organs around it.
As it grows, cells might even travel through the blood or lymph system to affect new areas
entirely in a different part of the body.
These tumors are threatening and often need more immediate action to stall their progress.
The other type of tumor is benign, which means it isn’t actively affecting nearby areas.
When a benign tumor is removed, that tends to be the end of the story, it likely won’t return.
While benign tumors are less threatening, they might be much larger and can still have
a major impact, especially if located in sensitive areas such as the brain.
How does someone get cancer?
Often times, this might be genetic.
If you have parents or grandparents that experienced a certain type of cancer, you too might be
more likely to see that same sort of genetic defect.
There are also external factors, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke that might trigger
lung cancer to develop.
Too much sun, and its dangerous ultraviolet rays, might trigger skin cancer.
Now let’s look at the study of cancer and the ways to stop it.
The branch of medicine dedicated to cancer research is called Oncology.
Within the field of Oncology, there are also specialists based on the type of treatment needed.
One way to tackle cancer is surgery, if the tumor or mass is able to be surgically removed.
The location, size, and status, ie malignant or benign, all factor into whether a tumor
is able to removed surgically.
It all varies on the person and the cancer that they’re experiencing, surgery may not
even be an option for everyone.
The second type of treatment is chemotherapy.
As per the name, this treatment uses chemicals that can kill cancer cells.
It works to slow down or stop altogether this expansion of cells.
This unfortunately also might affect healthy cells, so you might see effects like hair
loss or fatigue.
Chemotherapy might be intended to altogether kill the cancer cells, or might be a means
to slowing its progression.
These tactics for handling cancer can be mixed, so you might see chemotherapy used to destroy
cancer cells until the mass is small enough to be removed via surgery.
Or if surgery didn’t get all the cancer cells, chemotherapy might be used to eliminate the remaining cells.
The third strategy to eliminate cancer cells is radiation, where targeted energy is used
to break up or destroy cancer cells.
These oncologists will track the placement of the cancer cells and then use highly powerful
radiation doses to hit these tumors.
The drawback is that this energy might be detrimental to nearby organs that are also
hit with this powerful beam, so the placement of the mass can have an impact on the amount of radiation used.
Now, if you’re interested in donating to help fund cancer research, there are an incredible
amount of hospitals and non-profits doing research in this area.
Instead of pointing you to one, I’m going to point you to a site called Charity Navigator,
where you can look up places and then see what score they’ve earned, to make sure
that your donation is being used properly on something that you care about.
The content found in this video is courtesy of the National Cancer Institute and the article
‘Precision Medicine in Cancer Treatment’ and from the organization Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to learn more about cancer,
if you want to, subscribe for more educational videos just like this. Thanks for watching.