CANCER : PART 1
All the cells in our body has a limited life-span; and their growth and division is controlled. But, occasionally, some cells might escape this control and give rise to clones of cells called tumor, which can undergo further changes to become cancer.
Any cell go through the following 3 steps to finally become a cancer.
1) Immortalization
2) Transformation
3) Metastasis.
These steps involve multiple genetic changes and these changes first make them immortal, then transformed and gradually malignant cancer
We will look at the above 3 properties in the following sections:-
IMMORTALIZATION :
- It is the process of becoming immortal. An immortal cell can grow indefinitely.
- They are very much similar to normal cells and behave normally, when cultured in vitro. They don't form tumors when introduced in test animals like transformed cells.
- They are very useful in labs because their property is similar to normal cells but they can grow indefinitely.
- This makes them easy to maintain and easy to use for understanding the normal processes and physiology of cells and drug testing.
TRANSFORMATION-In this process, the immortal cells lose a number of properties to become transformed.
Following are the properties of a transformed cell:
- They become anchorage independent.
- They need very little or negligible amount of growth factors for their growth.
- They show density independent growth. This leads to the foci formation in vitro and tumour formation in vivo.
- They lose cytoskeleton organization. This makes them look round unlike normal cells.
- Transformed cells are tumorigenic and have properties similar to that of cancer cells.
- when introduced in animal or humans; They give rise to tumors which may or may not become a cancer.
● METASTASIS- A tumor become a cancer only when it attains the property of metastasis. In which, part of the cell from a tumor detach and penetrate the blood vessels to get access to circulation and then move out of it to infect some other type of tissues to form a secondary tumor. This property , if acquired by a cell gives them the capability to infect different parts of our body and this is a very dangerous state and makes the treatment equally difficult; and THIS IS CANCER.
This is when we call a given tumor as cancer; and this is the property for which tumors are checked once doctor diagnoses a patient with a tumor. And if it is a benign tumor then it is removed just by a surgery; and depending upon the intensity to which it is malignant, doctors treat them with a combination of drugs, radiation,chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
now, we will have a look at which of the above properties are shown by the popularly known types of cancer; i.e. benign and malignant.
Benign tumour are immortal and transformed.they do not show the property of metastasis.
E.g. a skin wart.
They are mostly enclosed in fibroid connective tissue and are easily removed by surgery.
Malignant tumor (cancer) shows all the above 3 properties. e.g. sarcomas , lymphomas.
Well this was just a basic step into understanding the normal cell change into cancer. A detailed discussion will be done in the coming articles. you can drop your queries or doubts in the comments; and if you want to discuss about something else. THANK YOU.
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