Pathophysiology Paper: Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY
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Introduction
Cancer is a collection of related diseases in which the body’s cells divide uncontrollably and spread into different tissues of the body. Cancer can begin anywhere in the human body except the hair and teeth. Most notably, cancer occurs in regions of the body where cell division is at its highest. The human hair and teeth are regions where cell division and growth are normally slow and probably stop at some point in life. As a result, cancerous cells cannot start in these places (Kleinsmith, Kerrigan, Spangler, 2001).
In normal cell division cycles, cells grow and then divide either through the process of mitosis or meiosis to form new cells that are in urgent need by the body. When such new cells form, the old cells begin to grow old or become damaged in the process of division. Therefore, they die and the new cells replace them. Cancer, however, develops when this systematic process of cell division is interrupted. Cells become abnormal in cancer development as old and damaged cells survive when they should be dead. Further, new cells continue to be added in an uncontrollable rate to form growths referred to as tumors. Tumors are generally solid in nature and comprise dense masses of tissue. However, cancers of the blood (such as leukemia) do not form such solid masses.
Tumors can either be malignant or benign depending on their ability to invade other body tissues. Normally, cancerous tumors are malignant in nature. This means that they can spread into and invade other tissues in the body distant from their original source. In these new sites, the malignant tumors grow and divide to form new tumors. Their mode of transport is through the blood or the lymph system. Contrastingly, benign tumors neither spread nor invade nearby tissues. They are usually localized in one region of the body; however, these tumors can be quite large. Additionally, benign tumors do not grow back once they are removed. Malignant tumors may or may not grow back after removal. However, most benign tumors are generally considered stable except benign brain tumors which are often life threatening.
Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer
Diagnosis
When an individual experiences some or all of the early signals for cancer, he or she must undergo some screening tests to determine the possible existence of cancer. After the screening tests have been performed and seem to indicate the possible existence of some cancer cells, a complete diagnosis must be performed by a doctor. The diagnosis involves surgical removal of a small piece of the potentially infected tissue for a complete microscopic examination. This procedure is referred to as biopsy. A complete microscopic examination confirms whether a tumor exists or not; if a tumor exists, the examination will then confirm whether it is benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous) in nature.
Once the diagnosis has confirmed the presence of cancer, the next process involves determination of the level of “aggressiveness” of the tumor cells. The reason for carrying out this examination is to know how fast the cancer is in...