cancer question

[J842P]

Hello all,

I have an aunt that made the comment that cancer serves some sort of good purpose in the body and it is only when it goes out of control it becomes bad. I have never heard this before. A quick internet search doesn't bring up anything about cancer being of any good. I can find. Have any of you heard this and is it true. I suspect my aunt heard bunkum but I could be wrong.

She may be referring to the fact that cancer isn't like a virus or bacterial infection, it is a disorder of your own body, and the cells that make up a cancer cell derived from your own body's cell.

But no, cancer is by definition the break down of various processes that control the cell cycle.

Cancer is your cells evolving a way to break free from the communism of your organism

 

[J842P]

That control is achieved through containment. Is that correct?

Consider a simple case:

- Gene A - Causes cell division
- Gene B - Produces an enzyme that limits gene A

Suddenly gene B mutates in a cell and the enzyme no longer works. Now Gene A is no longer being inhibited and can, in theory, grow out of control.

In reality it's a lot more complex than this but that gives you an idea. Generally speaking 'carcinogens' are things that can mutate DNA which cause specific genes to fail and result in cancer.

Thanks for that.

Why then do the cells end up in different areas of the body? Do they escape or migrate from where they originally reside?

Yes. They evolve a way to break free of the controls of your cell cycle, e.g. by resisting signals to commit suicide (apoptosis). But really, this would just be a neoplasm, a "new growth". For it to become a malignant neoplasm, i.e. a cancer, it must evolve the ability to support itself. So, yes, for example, to move to other parts of your body (note, cancer's that happen in cells that are already moving around kind of suck for this reason, e.g. leukemia), or to grow it's own vascular system (angiogenesis).