ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the issues and nature of cancer from a homeostatic perspective. Studying cancer lets us see how a loss of homeostasis in one particular system, even in only one part of the body, can have devastating consequences for the rest of the body and may even lead to death. Cancer is a proliferation of abnormal cells in the body and these cells are referred to as neoplasms because they represent new growth. Our genes contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which provides a code for all the activities of a cell: the proteins it makes, the substances it takes into the cell and those it excretes and the rate at which the cell grows and divides. The double helical structure of DNA is familiar to most people and this aspect of DNA explains how it is able to reproduce prior to cell division and conserve the genetic code.
