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Like so many things in medicine, tumors are not only fairly common but also pretty confusing. After all, many people have heard of a tumor, but how many really know what they are. Neoplasia is the medical term that covers the growth of tumors. But how does it work? What causes tumors to grow? How are they diagnosed? And what can you do to treat them?
What Is Neoplasia?
Neoplasia is a term that means an uncontrolled growth of cells. You see, your body is composed of millions of different cells. Every day, some of these cells die and need to be replaced. So your body’s cells replicate themselves to replace the ones that die. This process is encoded in your DNA, which is a chain of acids that form the basic cellular blueprint for everyone.
The DNA itself replicates constantly so that it can effectively tell your cells how to form correctly. But every time your DNA replicates, there is the potential for it to become damaged and for flawed DNA to begin replicating. Your body has a complex system for keeping the DNA consistent, but sometimes it fails.
When that happens, the DNA can no longer keep your cells replicating the right way. And that leads to neoplasia when the cells begin to multiply too rapidly. These extra cells grow into large clumps of tissue called “neoplasms.” And these types of growths are what you’re thinking of when you think of a tumor.
Of course, not every form of tumor is dangerous. Some tumors pose no real threat to your health and can even be left untreated. But sometimes the tumors can grow into vital organs like the brain, which becomes a medical concern. And occasionally, tumors can metastasize. That means that they form cancers when the cells begin to destroy healthy cells and spread throughout the body.
These forms of cancerous cells can easily be life-threatening and should be treated as soon as possible.
But what determines if a tumor becomes cancerous? And what causes the errors in the DNA that lead to tumors?
What Causes It?
To understand how DNA can get damaged, it’s important to consider how complicated the process of DNA replication is. It’s estimated that in the average person, damaged DNA is produced 60,000 times a day, per cell. Because your DNA is so complicated and because of the natural conditions in your body, this DNA damage happens constantly.
But your body also has cells that your DNA codes specifically to correct these mutations in other DNA. The problem occurs when the DNA that codes cells to correct DNA mutation itself is damaged. At that point, the process for self-correction breaks down, which can lead to cancerous growths.
There are a lot of different things that can lead to this kind of damage to your DNA. As you can see by the fact that it happens 60,000 times per cell, per day, your DNA is naturally prone to damage. And sometimes it just occurs spontaneously for no particular reason.
But there are also a lot of different external things that can damage your DNA. For instance, you’ve no doubt heard that smoking can lead to lung cancer. And that’s because chemicals in the smoke damage the DNA in the lungs. Eventually, this can lead to neoplasia growths in the lungs.
And there is a huge list of things that can damage your DNA. To select just a few worth mentioning, the list includes things like too much red meat, alcohol consumption, asbestos, and even UV light from the sun. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the risk of cancer and seek immediate treatment if you develop tumors.
How Is It Diagnosed and Treated?
How a tumor is diagnosed and treated depends on where it is and whether or not it has progressed to cancer. Many forms of tumors will cause no symptoms at all, but some, especially when they are cancerous, can cause some general symptoms like fatigue, chronic pain, loss of appetite, and weight loss.
In addition, if a tumor is located near a vital organ, it may cause symptoms related to that organ. For instance, tumors in the lung can cause shortness of breath and tumors in the brain might cause difficulties in vision and chronic headaches.
In most cases, doctors can diagnose a tumor by looking at it. If the tumor is external, that’s easy to do, but for internal tumors, the doctor will have to order an x-ray or CAT scan.
In most cases, tumors are removed surgically with the aim of removing as much as possible so that it doesn’t grow back. But for cancerous tumors, doctors may not be able to remove the tumor completely. In that case, they may prescribe chemotherapy or radiation therapy. In chemotherapy, chemicals that shrink the tumor are injected into the bloodstream in the hope that they can force it to stop expanding. In radiation therapy, the same principle applies, but heavy doses of radiation are shot at the tumor instead to kill the cells.
So, what do you think? Have you had an experience with a tumor? Let us know in the comments.
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