We all begin life as a single cell, and we grow through cell division. While it may appear that growth is straightforward, it is not for cells. Cell division is a complex chemical dance that is driven in part by the individual and in part by the community. When there are 100 trillion cells involved, anything can go wrong. A mutation could occur in a cell’s set of instructions, or DNA. Most of the time, the cell recognizes errors and shuts down, or the system discovers and eliminates a troublemaker. However, enough mutations can override the fail-safes, causing the cell to divide at an uncontrollable rate. The erroneous instructions are passed down to the progeny of the cells at every stage. Weeks, months, or years later, what started as one renegade cell transforms into cancer.

Cancer alters the natural division mechanism of cells, forcing them to grow quickly and recklessly. However, by using chemotherapy medications, we can take advantage of cancer’s aggressiveness and turn it into a weakness. Radiation and most types of chemotherapy act by shredding the DNA of the cells or interrupting the copying machinery. However, these therapies do not specifically target cancer cells. Radiation hits everything you point it at and chemotherapeutics affect every cell in your body. Also keep in mind that most medications function by interfering with cell division. As a result, every time a cell divides, it exposes itself to attack, and the more frequently a cell divides, the more likely it is to be killed by the medication.

Hair cells divide frequently, but this is not a cause for concern. Skin cells, gut cells, and blood cells are some of the other frequently dividing cells in your body. As such hair loss, skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, weight loss, and pain are just a few of the unpleasant side effects of cancer treatment. This makes logical because these are the cells that gets hit the hardest.

In the end, it is all about growth.