Cancer is not contagious because the cells are from that body, and they are made to function in the body. These cells are normal cell, with all the
DNA of that person, that for some reason started multiplying without control.
RANT
Probably what happened to your mother was something similar to what happened to my father and tends to happen in the cases of prostate cancer.
What happens with prostate cancer is that the proximity of the prostate with the hip bones makes the cancer cells spread to the bones. If they reach
the bones then the cancer cells may spread by the blood vessels and they tend to relocate more on some places than others.
In my father's case they relocated on the brain, and in the last 1 1/2 months he had difficulty walking, sometimes in talking and eating.
About that lump in your throat you should really see a doctor, and tell him the family history of diseases. It may be nothing special, but if you
smoke or work or live in places with much smoke or dust, you should do make some tests.
The attitude of the doctors in your mothers case shows what I already heard, that here in Portugal all the health system is prepared to deal with
cancer patients, and we have very good doctors (except mine, who is a jerk).
We should not be paranoid, but we should deny ignorance, so start by knowing if anything is wrong with you.
If you want, you can go to the
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy , they have
lots of information, it was there that I learned all I know about medicine.
