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Good question. While I don't
Good question. While I don't know your exact diagnosis, I do understand what you're asking. Look at things this way-- a cancer cell is still a human cell, and it reproduces like crazy. The problem is that it is not productive-- it doesn't do anything for you the way it should. It just takes resources from other parts of your body that need it.
As tumors grow they also occupy space, and they start to infringe on other parts of the body. For instance, a kidney tumor could so overtake the organ itself until there's not enough healthy kidney tissue remaining to carry out its function, causing kidney failure, which could then cause septis. A tumor could obstruct the intestinal tract and make it impossible for the body to be nourished, causing a kind of starvation. In lymphomas, the cancerous cells can make a person extremely immunocompromised, so that they can't fight off infections that healthy people could fight, and those infections could be lethal.
Look at it this way: as cancer grows within the body, it deprives the body of something-- could be healthy white blood cells, could be organ tissue, could be the system of clearing mucus from the lungs--whatever it is, it impedes that process from being carried out, and a chain reaction occurs that normally ends up being the thing that people die from. Does that make sense?
Ross