This week's artwork was donated by Vansom, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . This article provides a brief explanation of the biology of cancer, including its biological and molecular causes. What is Cancer Cancer is an abnormality in a cell's internal regulatory mechanisms that results in uncontrolled growth and reproduction of the cell. This sounds simple, but there are probably more regulatory interactions occurring within a cell than there are interactions among people in New York City in any given day. When this occurs, a tumor is formed.
Cancer is a term describing a large variety of disorders of proliferation.
The specific disorder may vary from tissue type to tissue type. A single tumor may even have different populations of cells within it with differing processes that have gone awry. Benign A tumor can be classified as malignant or benign. In both cases, there is an abnormal aggregation and proliferation of cells. In the case of a malignant tumor, these cells behave more aggressively, acquiring properties of increased invasiveness.