Cancer is a collection of related diseases caused by abnormal cell growth in a patient’s body. It occurs when normal checks on cellular division cease to function, resulting in excessive growth of cells in a specific tissue the body cannot control on its own.

Cancer is not one single disease, and it develops from a patient’s own cells. It can occur in virtually any tissue in the body – from bone, to skin, to brain – and a wide variety of mutations can induce it.

The genetic mutations that lead to cancer typically:

• Disable error correction in the genetic code (DNA repair)
• Prevent programmed cell death (apoptosis)
• Circumvent normal  life cycles
• Cause cells to reproduce much more quickly than normal
• Compromise a cell’s ability to respond to outside cues

Due to specific mutations that caused it, each individual patient’s cancer is effectively its own disease – making cancer a necessary venue for personalized medicine.

New mutations involved in cancer initiation or progression are constantly being identified. Additionally, once the normal checks on DNA repair stop working, cancer cells can change over time, introducing new treatment options and closing others over the course of the cancer’s lifetime.