why do you die from cancer?

Question: why do you die from cancer?
- Keywords:
  cancer,
  death,
  die,
  disease,
  end of life
Asked by hdlxhj to Tim, Sarah on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by rocky123.
- Tim Millar answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  Unfortunately, cancer cells stop our body from working properly. For example, the liver is a very important organ which has lots of jobs to do to keep us healthy including removing toxins from the body. When a cancer develops in the liver, the cells no longer do their job properly so those toxins can build up and make us very ill. So if the cancer changes the function of an organ that can be bad. Think if the cancer was in the lungs and was stopping the function of the lungs, how can we survive without oxygen?
  
  If we have cancer in the bones too, this can cause us to have raised calcium levels in our blood which can cause problems with the heart and lead to a heart attack.
  
  Other problems are related to the bodies ability to form clots. Normally if we cut ourselves we loose some blood but it usually stops after a while and a sticky substance forms into a scab called a blood clot. In some people with cance that is flowing around the blood, clots can form around the cancer cell. If these clots block blood vessels in the heart they can cause stress and a heart attack or if they lodge in the brain can cause a stroke.
- Sarah Thomas answered on 15 Jun 2011:
  
  Cancer is when a persons DNA gets damaged, and then the cells grow out of control and form a lump called a tumour. Sometimes tumours can be harmless, it really depends where in the body it ends up. If it is in the person’s brain, as the tumour grows, it puts more and more pressure on the person’s brain because there is only a limited amount of space within their skull, and so brain tumours can make patients ill very very quickly.
  
  Often if it grows on or near a major organ, it can stop the organ working properly and this can make the patient seriously ill too.
  
  Some people die from cancer because it is diagnosed too late and by the time they start to get chemotherapy, they are too weak and they cannot recover from it. That happened to somebody I love.
  
  The other problem with cancer is that as it gets really big and take over the persons body, it feeds from all their nutrition and takes energy away from the rest of the body. The patient ends up getting malnourishment even if they are eating well, and they lose weight and get really weak and tired.
  
  It’s a horrible disease and breaks up families and i’m glad i’m doing something to help.

Question: why do you die from cancer?

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