Hey guys,
I'm studying and researching some concepts of Cancer. I would like to hear your opinion over some things.
So, what causes cancer? Well, cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. Where there is no cell death, so basically cells are unresponsive. I was kind of confused as to what this actually meant, but then it was explained to me that these cells are not just randomly replicating, they are quite complex. They can create their own source of blood vessels for nourishment.
Anyways,
So, Cancer.
Loss of cell regulation leads to cancer, but how so? Well, it's due damage in somatic cells, cancer is not all inherited, in fact around 5% of cancer is inherited. There's two cases, we have too much activity, or either too much control.
How is a cancer cell different from a normal cell?
Well, we have many changes.
1. There are different growth signals, in normal cells, there's a requirement of mitogens where it is an extracellular growth factor that helps cells get past a certain restriction point in the cell cycle. Cancer cells seem to lack such things. They do not require Mitogens for regulation or growth.
2. They do not undergo cell death as normal cells do.
3. They are immortal, I'm not quite sure about this one. Well, it would be somewhat true because if they do not undergo cell death, or apoptosis. But, I'm not sure as to how this ties with Telomere hypothesis. They do not have telomeres so there's no aging of the cell. It remains in fixed form?
4. Tissue invasion, this is where cancers are able to move from one site to another and infect. There's only a need for one cell in a new site, for replication or division of this tumor cell to begin. They move through blood.
5. They are able to induce their own vessels. They're able to basically feed themselves by integrating or forming own blood vessels. I'm not sure how this is done, could someone explain to me? =3
There are many different kinds of Tumor cells and their development, so everyone knows about the Bening tumor, and then malignant tumor right? We have one that does not cause damage, however, it's not fully explained to me, because in definition the bening tumor is not supposed to grow and it can just remain there, but however, how does a malignant tumor form? There must be some kind of steps or procedures for the formation of this.
Metastasis
This is when they break through basal lamina and they're moving from one site to another. So, they start to accumulate and eventually break down the basal lamina supporting the structure that they are on. Once this breaks, they are able to transport themselves to a place, which is totally random. The cells DO NOT choose where they go, they just randomly happen to go there. This is from my knowledge thus far, does anyone know of a theory? or if their position is random or something?
Let me know, =3
Tumor progression
When they break basal lamina, the cells spill DUE to missing CAMS (Cell adhesion molecules)
*Will update later* But feel free to post right now though!
Explain what you know about Cancer, I'd love to hear it =3
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