Cancer Center - Video Introduction

Let’s start by explaining what cancer really is. Your body contains trillions of cells. Cells are like building blocks for your body. Cells with similar functions form groups within our bodies. Every day, old cells are dying, and new ones are replacing them. Your body makes new cells when one cell makes identical copies of itself. Sometimes a cell makes a mistake when it copies itself and produces a damaged cell.

These damaged cells can divide very rapidly and create a lump of damaged cells. This is called a tumor. There are two different types of tumors. One is called benign and the other is called malignant. The first type, a benign tumor, is not cancer nor is it dangerous but most of the time they will need to be removed. The second type, the malignant tumor, is dangerous, can spread throughout the body and grow uncontrollably. This is cancer. Now I’d like to share a medical term with you: metastasis. This is when one cell from that group of damaged cancer cells we mentioned earlier breaks off and travels through the body. This is what causes cancer to become life threatening. Malignant tumors are life threatening because the damaged cells grow uncontrollably and squeeze out the good cells. Then, the body cannot function.

Now, let’s talk about prostate cancer. Here are the four topics that we will discuss about prostate cancer: 1) description, 2) risk, 3) detection, and 4) treatments.