What makes most tumors so lethal

When cancer blocks the lungs, there may eventually be not enough healthy lung tissue to allow you to absorb the oxygen you need. If you have advanced cancer, you might not have the strength to fight off a lung infection, even with strong antibiotics. So the infection can eventually lead to death. Cancer in the bones can cause calcium to be released into the bloodstream. This can affect the calcium balance of the body.

Normally the body has systems to correct this, but when the imbalance becomes too great the systems don't work any more. There is treatment to bring calcium levels back to normal, but these only work for a limited time. Then the calcium levels can continue to rise in the blood.

High levels of calcium in the body can cause you to become unconscious and eventually die. Cancer cells can affect the bone marrow. The bone marrow if a spongy material that fills the bones.

It produces very early cells called stem cells which then develop into new blood cells. Eventually, you might not have enough healthy bone marrow to make new:. The liver is the chemical factory of the body. It carries out many tasks and is very important in maintaining the balance of body chemicals. A cancer that has spread to the liver can upset this chemical balance.

Cancers can grow into and damage blood vessels in a vital part of the body. This can cause bleeding. Statistical trends are also important for measuring the success of efforts to control and manage cancer. The best indicator of progress against cancer is a change in age-adjusted mortality death rates, although other measures, such as quality of life, are also important. Incidence is also important, but it is not always straightforward to interpret changes in incidence.

A rise in incidence can reflect a real increase in disease occurrence, such as when an increase in exposure to a risk factor causes more cases of cancer. In such a scenario the increased incidence would likely lead to a rise in deaths from the cancer. In this example, the incidence of the cancer would increase, but death rates would not change.

Mortality trends, when compared with incidence trends, can also provide evidence of improved treatments. If death rates drop faster than incidence or if death rates drop while incidence is rising , this may reflect the availability of better treatments. For example, statistical evidence suggests that improved treatments have likely made a substantial contribution to recent sharp declines in the lung cancer mortality rate.

In the United States, the overall cancer death rate has declined since the early s. The most recent Annual Report to the Nation , released in March , shows that overall cancer death rates decreased by:. Although death rates for many individual cancer types have also declined, rates for a few cancers have not changed or even increased. As the overall cancer death rate has declined, the number of cancer survivors has increased.

These trends show that progress is being made against the disease, but much work remains. Although rates of smoking, a major cause of cancer, have declined, the rates of other risk factors, such as obesity, have increased in the United States.

Also, the US population is aging, and cancer rates increase with age. The SEER program website has more detailed cancer statistics, including population statistics for common types of cancer, customizable graphs and tables, and interactive tools.

The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer provides an annual update of cancer incidence, mortality, and trends in the United States. Menu Contact Dictionary Search. Understanding Cancer.

What Is Cancer? Cancer Statistics. Cancer Disparities. Cancer Causes and Prevention. Risk Factors. Cancer Prevention Overview. Cancer Screening Overview. Screening Tests. Diagnosis and Staging. Questions to Ask about Your Diagnosis.

Types of Cancer Treatment. Side Effects of Cancer Treatment. Clinical Trials Information. A to Z List of Cancer Drugs. Questions to Ask about Your Treatment. If they reach the bloodstream or lymphatic system , they can travel throughout the body. The cells are then able to form new tumors in organs and tissue far from where it started. This process is called metastasis.

Cancer can kill when it invades essential organs, like your liver, lungs, or brain, and stops them from functioning properly. These complications could be due to primary cancer that starts in an essential organ, such as brain cancer.

Or it could be cancer that has metastasized from one area to another. For example, breast cancer that has spread to the lungs. As cancer spreads throughout the body, it becomes more difficult to control.

Some types of cancer tend to spread slowly. Other types spread more aggressively. Malnutrition is a major cause of mortality in advanced cancer. This can happen when tumors in the digestive system form a blockage or interfere with the absorption of essential nutrients.

In addition, cancer and cancer treatments can lead to loss of appetite and the inability to keep down food. Signs of malnutrition include:. A diseased or collapsed lung can lead to:. The liver has many important jobs — such as filtering toxins from the blood and maintaining the balance of chemicals. Liver tumors can prevent the liver from performing these functions, which can lead to jaundice and other life threatening issues. Stage 4 is the highest stage.

The stage of the cancer is very important in choosing the best treatment for a person. Ask your doctor about your cancer's stage and what it means for you. When cancer cells break away from a tumor, they can travel to other areas of the body through either the bloodstream or the lymph system. Cancer cells can travel through the bloodstream to reach distant organs. If they travel through the lymph system, the cancer cells may end up in lymph nodes.

Either way, most of the escaped cancer cells die or are killed before they can start growing somewhere else. But one or two might settle in a new area, begin to grow, and form new tumors. This spread of cancer to a new part of the body is called metastasis. In order for cancer cells to spread to new parts of the body, they have to go through several changes.