cancer: cell division gone wrong

• cancer is a group of diseases that lead to uncontrolled cell division
• How does cancer happen?

  • due to change in DNA that controls the cell cycle
  • cell is unable to stay in interphase for the normal amount of time
  • checkpoints fail and the cells continue to divide uncontrollably
• How do people get cancer?

  • run in family
  • triggered by environmental factors
  • both
• metastasis is the process where cancer cells break away from the original tumour and establish another tumour somewhere else in the body
• a tumour is a mass of cells that continue to grow and divide without any obvious function in the body
• benign tumour is a tumour that does not affect surrounding tissue other than by physically crowding them
• malignant tumour is a tumour that interferes with the functioning of surrounding cells
• malignant tumour is cancerous, benign tumour is not
• mutations are random changes in DNA
• carcinogens are cancer causing agents
• some carcinogens lead to cancer:

  • tobacco smoke
  • radiation
  • some viruses
  • chemicals in plastics
  • organic solvents
• some lifestyle choices to reduce risk of cancer:

  • avoid tobacco smoke
  • healthy diet
  • super foods
• to diagnose cancer, we can can use tests such as endoscopy, X-rays, ultrasound, etc. if abnormalities appear, a sample of suspected cells are viewed under a microscope
• the goal of cancer treatments are:

  • to slow down the growth of the tumours
  • destroy as many cancer cells as possible
• some methods of treatment for cancer are:

  • surgery (physically remove cancerous tissue)
  • chemotherapy (drug treatment to stop cancer cells from dividing & spreading)
  • radiation (damage to cancer cells)
• biophotonics use beams of light to detect and treat cancer