How many Cancers are there?!

How many Cancers are there?

is there a cure for them?

There are over 200 different types of cancer and even more subtypes of cancer. Essentially any cell in the human body, any tissue, organ, muscle, bone has the potential to turn cancerous. Cancer is further complicated by stage of the cancer (how much it has progressed) and grade of the tumor (how abnormal cells look under a microscope). Each cancer and each stage of the cancer requires a separate and different protocol to treat the disease. Some can be 'cured' if it is an early stage, in a good location and removed surgically. It may never reoccur . . so that person would be 'cured' of his cancer. Another person may have advanced disease and go into 'remission' where there is no visible signs of the disease. But, the malignant cells have the ability to lay dormant before growing again.
So the disease becomes 'chronic' . . and the patient is 'always in treatment'. Some cancers respond significantly to first line treatment and patients undergo long term remission (no signs of disease) . . they may never have a reoccurence again. So . . some cancers can be treated and lead to cure . . others become chronic . . and others progress with treatment but not remission or cure.

I'm reposting an explanation of how many cancers there are and the difficulties in finding a 'one pill, cure all' for the entire pack.

Reposted:
There are four major common groups of cancer. All the specific subgroups of cancer would than fall into one of these four . . except, of course, the types of cancer that are chimeric crosses between the common type . . cancer can be extremely complicated. Think of it this way . . any cell, in any location within the human body can become malignant. Thus there are over 200 kinds of cancer and as many subtypes.

The four groupings of cancer are:
1. Leukemia - cancer of the blood - there are at least 5 common types of leukemia and many subtypes: Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia; Acute Myelogenous Leukemia ; Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia; Chronic MyelogenousLeukemia; and Multiple Myeloma (which is not exactly leukemia, but a long term malignant plasma disorder).

2. Lymphoma - cancer involving the lymphatic system - there are two major branches of Lymphoma one is Hodgkin's Disease and the other is called Non-Hodgkins Disease. Again, there are many, many subtypes under this grouping.

3. Carcinoma - cancer that commonly occurs within a specific organ or body location - such as the Lung, Liver, Colon, Kidney, Breast. There hundreds of subtypes. Carcinoma is the most common cancer and the one people recognize the most. This type of cancer originates within that specific organ and thus carries the name of the organ as the type of cancer. Colon cells become malignant and form a colon tumor (cancer) and the disease is called Colon Cancer. If the disease spreads outside the colon it is called metastatic colon cancer - as it spreads malignant colon cells to distant places within the body. It is still colon cancer even if the cells start to grow tumors within the liver.

4. Sarcoma - rare cancer of the bone and soft tissue (muscles, tendons, fat,) - There are at least a hundred or more subtypes of sarcoma that can occur in any location within the body (where everythere is soft tissue, muscles, tendons, joints, bone) Examples would be: Osteosarcoma (bone cancer); Lipsosarcoma (fat tissue) ; Synovial Sarcoma (tissue around joints); Rhabdomyosarcoma (active muscles within body) ; GIST (connective tissue in digestive system).

And, probably getting its own unique grouping would be Brain Tumors. Many brain tumors are 'benign' but only because in the confined space of the brain there is little room for this type of cancer to spread. There are primary and secondary types of brain tumor. There are many subtype classifications of brain tumor: Brain Stem Gliomas; Medulloblastoma (devastating childhood cancer); Ependymoma ; Anaplastic Astrocytoma

There is also a whole group of Childhood Cancers. These are cancers that are generally specific to age or type of primitive cell found in children and young adults: Neuroblastoma (cells found in the development of the nervous system and other tissues).

And than there are cancer mutation types that defy description . . such as Carcinoid Tumors or Carcinosarcoma which is a cross between a carcinoma and a sarcoma tumor, or Mesothelioma which is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos.

Cancer is complicated not only in location and type of malignancy . . each of the groups and subgroups can also be broken down by Stage 1, 2, 3, 4 and the tumor classified as low, medium, or high grade.

All of the above is why there is not yet a single cure for cancer . . every cancer type has a different and separate treatment protocol. What works to treat Leukemia does not work to treat Sarcoma. What might work to treat Colon Cancer will not work to treat a child with Neuroblastoma.

Research needs to continue in all types of cancer which is why it is so costly . . cancer encompasses hundreds of separate distinct and often deadly diseases. Cancer is as individual and unique as any other feature for a person making it even more difficult to treat.