Cancer is one of the worst words to hear in the doctor's office. It often brings forth pictures of death and painful treatments. Cancer is one of the top natural killers of humans and there is no real way to stop it. But what is it really?

The basic idea of how cancer forms is a cell that should die through the normal cell lifecycle does not die. This mutation continues to grow and keep growing and turns into a tumor. This unchecked cell growth is what causes the cancer. Your natural immune system will fight it, but it's usually treated by radiation, chemotherapy, and other treatments.

As the unchecked cells continue to grow at an accelerated rate, they can form benign tumors if they grow in a localized place. These tumors are not necessarily dangerous and will not harm you unless they grow out of control and in size. The basic treatment of benign cancers is just leaving it alone, or cut them out if it's cosmetic.

A malignant tumor is what we generally think of when we hear cancer. Malignant tumors continue to grow and spread throughout the body. Infections and illness will spread throughout your blood stream.

There are three main treatments for cancer. They are the removal of the infected tissue, chemotherapy, and radiation. Chemotherapy and radiation are used mostly on non-operable forms of cancers such as bone marrow cancer. Scientists are continuing to develop and research new treatments all the time.

Unfortunately there is no real cure for cancer, when a patient does have the tumor removed or the cancer is in remission. The odds of it coming back are great. Some cancers do have vaccines, but most do not. The best way to prevent cancer is diet and reduction of high risk behavior.

Hundreds of websites, such as www.canceranswers.info, offer support, information, and research. This has been a boon to survivors and those concerned with the killer disease.