Cancer and
Growths
Healthy living prevents cancer
• eating nutritious food
• protecting yourself
from STIs
• not smoking or chewing
tobacco
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Cancer is a serious sickness that can affect many different
parts of the body. If it is treated early it is often curable, but if
left too long it can cause death. Many people who get cancer
die from it, especially those with little access to health care.
Women often do not see a health worker or doctor unless
they are very sick. So women who get cancer are more likely
to get very sick or die because the cancer is not found
early enough. Also, women who get cancer are sometimes
considered ‘cursed’ and may be shunned by their families or
communities. This isolation is not only bad for the women
who are sick, but also for the whole community, since it keeps
everyone from knowing about how cancer makes people sick.
What is cancer?
All living things, like the human body, are made up of
tiny cells that are too small to see without a microscope.
Sometimes these cells change and grow in an abnormal way,
causing growths (tumors). Some growths go away without
treatment. But some growths get larger or spread and may
cause health problems. Most growths do not become cancer,
but some do.
Cancer starts when some cells begin to grow out of control
and take over parts of the body. When cancer is found early, it
can often be removed by surgery, or treated with medicines or
radiation, and the chance of it being cured may be good. Once
cancer spreads, however, curing it is more difficult and eventually
becomes impossible.
➤ ‘Tumor’ is another
word for growth
or swelling. Some
tumors are cancer
and some are not.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012