For a patient who has been diagnosed with cancer, the word cancer just means a disease that can have an adverse impact on his life expectancy. Most cancer patients do not know what exactly does it mean and why does it occur. They are also not aware of what they can do to prevent cancer or which of their lifestyle habits could have lead to it. They understand it as a condition that has come up from nowhere during their body lifestyle. They think they were perfectly healthy and had no disease condition when the cancer was detected.
However, they fail to understand that cancer is a slowly progressing condition that begins in a healthy organ when it is subjected to some damage recurrently over a period. So, their feeling that they were healthy before cancer was detected is just their perception. This chapter is focused on providing basic information about what cancer is, its causes and how it spreads so that people have a more clear understanding of the disease.
WHAT IS CANCER?
Cancer is the term used to refer to a collection of related diseases that occur when some cells in the body start multiplying without any control and spread to the surrounding tissues and cells.
Cancer can begin from almost any organ or tissue in the human body that is made up of about trillions of microscopic cells. In normal individuals, the cells are designed to grow and multiply continuously to produce new cells that can replace the old, dead cells. And when these new cells grow and become old or get damaged, they die and are replaced by the new cells. This is how the cycle continues. This process of cell division is controlled by the body’s different mechanisms so that each cell is allowed to grow fully into a mature cell. [1]
WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF CANCER?
Cancer can arise due to the genetic makeup of a person. In fact, it is often the single largest contributing factor to the occurrence of cancer. It occurs due to the changes in the genes that control the way the cells function, particularly how they grow and divide. The genetic factor that can cause cancer is inherited from the parents. It can also arise during the lifetime of a person when the body is exposed to the environmental toxins resulting in errors in the process of cell division causing damage to the DNA structure. The cancer-causing environmental toxins include the chemicals inhaled while smoking, active as well as passive, and radiation arising from the sun in the form of ultraviolet rays.
HOW DOES CANCER SPREAD?
The mass of cancer that originates in an organ is called a primary tumor. The cancer cells from the primary tumor can break away and travel through the blood or lymph to form new tumors in other parts of the body. This is called secondary cancer or metastatic tumor. The metastatic tumor is usually of the same type as the cancer of the primary tumor. The process of the spread of cancer cells from the primary site to any other part of the body is called metastasis. [2]
Treatment of cancer by using garlic together with radiation therapy and chemotherapy can help prolong the lives of patients with primary cancer as well as metastatic cancer.
In general, the primary goal of the treatment is to control the abnormal growth of the cells or to relieve the symptoms caused by it. The treatment is also aimed at preventing further damage to the tissues and restoring the functions of the affected organs. Garlic can assist in this with its multitude of benefits targeted at improving the functions of the vital organs. It can also help in regularizing the functions of the immune system and thereby control the division of the cancer cells. Regular use of garlic during the conventional cancer treatment can help patients in achieving better results in less time. It can also prolong the life expectancy of patients and improve the quality of overall life.
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