Ovarian Cancer: How Does Cancer Arise?

In order to understand what ovarian cancer is, let’s review some of the basics about how cancer develops in general. This is a condensed overview, and the references at the end are meant for those who want to go beyond this basic explanation of anatomy, reproductive physiology, genetics and the genesis of cancer.

Tissues, Organs & Building Blocks

Your body is made up of cells, the smallest building blocks that you can see under a microscope. Cells aggregate or come together in an orderly fashion and form various tissues, like skin, muscle, bone and your organs.Just to get an idea of how many cells it takes to make tissues (both normal and abnormal), a one cubic inch area has approximately one billion cells connected together.

Each cell is composed of a central nucleus surrounded by cytoplasm (fluid in the cell), all of which is contained within a cell membrane (outer thin covering).The nucleus contains the genetic material contained in chromosomes, which harbor many different genes. Genes, in turn, are composed of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA; the building blocks of life.

Whether tissues grow normally or develop into cancer depends upon how the genes interact with various environmental factors, like diet. In that sense all cancers, including ovarian, are genetic in nature. However, some occur spontaneously and are called "sporadic", whereas some can be passed on through generations and are called "familial". Discover the difference by exploring what genes have to do with it.