General Cancer Information

This is your starting point with general cancer information to help understand what cancer is, how it affects patients and how it is diagnosed and treated.

Cancer can seem mysterious and certainly quite scary. It is often clouded with medical jargon and discussions of diagnosis and treatment which can be quite confusing to patients and their families. We hope to help clear up the fog and bring cancer into clearer focus so that you can understand what cancer is and how it affects patients.

The links on this page provide general cancer info, not specific to any one type of cancer.

General Cancer Information

• What is Cancer? We have all heard and even used the term, but how many people actually know what is meant by cancer and what distinguishes it from other diseases and other tumors?
• What Causes Cancer? While the specific causes of each type of cancer may vary, the end product that leads to cells becoming cancerous is similar across various forms of cancer.
• What are Typical Cancer Symptoms? Read more about how cancer presents, how it affects patients and general concepts about cancer symptoms.
• How is a Cancer Diagnosis Made? While each cancer is different, there are many universal concepts about cancer diagnosis which applies to most, if not all, cancers.
• What is Typical Treatment for Cancer? Again, treatment varies, but there are a number of very common treatments that are frequently used for many types of cancer.

Other Topics

• What is a Tumor? Like cancer, tumor is a term often used but poorly understood. Read more about what is meant by this term and what defines this form of disease.
• What is a Malignant Tumor? Malignant versus benign? What do these terms and what do they imply about tumors and cancer?
• What is a Benign Tumor?
• What are Cancer Risk Factors? Risk factors are factors that vary from person to person which can predict a higher likelihood of developing a particular disease. While risk factors for some specific types of cancer vary, here we discuss what risk factors are in general, as well as presenting some common cancer risk factors which are associated with higher incidence of this disease type.