When somebody dies of cancer, what exactly is the actual reason the body stops working?
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When my dad died of cancer, the nurse told me that different organs in the body start shutting down.
Imagine it like this
your body is a car and cancer cells is paint on the windshield (organ)
Except this paint drop on the windshield starts growing, and growing. Every time you wipe it off it continues growing if at least one drop is left.
Eventually the windshield is covered by paint and you cant see where you are driving and crash
This is kinda what happens, the cancer cells invade an organ and just hog space. The organ now has less space to carry out its function, and eventually the cancer spreads enough that the organ can no longer carry out its function, and you die from whatever that entails.
Ie if the cancer cells hog space in your lungs and prevent that from working, you are likely gonna die from respiratory failure.
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There are a lot of great answers already. I would like to add to that cancers generally make people feel very bad in the later stages. There is, generally speaking, a lot of pain, nausea, tiredness en sometimes confusion.
If there isn’t a acute moment that kills someone (e.g. severe bleeding, rampant infections with sepsis, stroke), people tend to lose their appetite, start drinking less, sleeping more and requiring an increasing dose of opioids (morfine-like painkillers). Eventually most of these patients die of exhaustion or dehydration.
My mom had lung cancer. Basically her lung kept filling up with fluid until she essentially drowned. At least that’s my understanding.
colorectal cancer its usually that the growths clog your intestines which then rupture and you die of sepsis.
idk about other cancers.
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For my mother it was bone cancer in the neck that expanded, expanded, expanded, destroying communication between her brain and body.
Having survived cancer – I can say without question that because of this I’m absolutely unqualified to answer this question. However, I’ll tell you what I learned.
Cancer isn’t a ‘thing’ it’s condition. A conditions of your existing cells. Cells divide and multiply but eventually bump into one another and produce a protein that says ‘hey, we have enough of us, lets stop reproducing’ and they do. Cancer is in everyone because we all have the same cells…sometimes – usually environmental conditions causes a mutation of a cell and it starts replicating WITHOUT the feature of producing the protein of HEY STOP or the ability to recognize the STOP protein. In either case you NOW have cells that are multiplying and replicating – others have answered how that can be detrimental. Say if a tumor starts crushing the blood supply arteries to your heart, or the blood supply to your kidneys.
Some tumorous growths are just left. Many fatty tissues are left on animals because they’re growing outward. Many people have had 60+ pound tumors removed because they presented as waist/weight gain.
Once your body is in a tumorous state the goal is to remove any chance those cells can ‘teach’ their bad habit to other cells. Stage 4 cancers are when it’s entered the lymph nodes (the bodies waste system) or the blood. Now tumors can pop up in the worst of locations.
So with me, I had Adenocarcinoma of the Esophagus. The other option is Squamous cell carcinoma. With adeno that type begins in the glandular tissue in the lower part of the esophagus where the esoph and stomach come together. With Squamous it starts in the cells that line the esophagus. Mine was up higher than the normal ‘at stomach’ level but as it didn’t originate from the squamous cells it wasn’t classified as that.
The ‘solution’ or treatment for me was always planned on – rip out the whole esophagus before it spreads to the rest of the body – I was late stage 3 discovery. In my case they were concerned the tumor would grow and crush veins, arteries, my heart, or my lungs.
So others have answered what actually kills you. Its the growth crushing off or blocking function of things you need. As you recall we’ve not got a lot of ‘spare parts’ lying around in there. Pretty much it all has a necessary function and losing it’s purpose is dire.
So if you have a lump…or see a growth GET IT LOOKED AT! Get to your doctor quickly – they can TELL A LOT from a blood test and other diagnostics. Typical ‘man type’ me…waited until I was coughing up blood. Fortunately for me it worked out (was rendered ‘better’ or fixed) – but would have been easier if they had known/spotted this earlier. GET TO YOUR DOCTOR! Encourage your friends to do so…offer to drive – pay for their co-pay – schedule the appointment! Whatever it takes get them to a skilled professional.
When I got my cancer of the two choices, adeno or squamous I had my choice of 50% chance to die or 85% chance to die! Which one do you think I was praying for? As it turned out I got the lesser of the two…not that I like 50/50 odds, but better than 85/15 odds.
For other cancers there are varying treatments. Like breast cancer or other tissue cancers. I’m not a doctor so I’m pretty ignorant about it all. But if you have a choice between RIPPING it out (whatever the affected area is) or just ‘living with it’ – I’d suggest the rip it out method. I’ve heard that many don’t want to lose a breast or a testicle and treatment methods can be very harsh on the body. Radiation and chemotherapy are KILL everything methods. Though with 3d targeting and better chemo’s life expectancies are so much better today than even 10 years ago when I was diagnosed. In the famous voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger: GET TO THE DOCTA’
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