Skip to main content

Understanding the Causes of Cancer

What Causes Cancer?

Most, if not all cancers are caused and perpetuated by a small population of tumor-initiating cells that exhibit numerous stem cell-like properties. Adult stem cells (SC) are involved in the regeneration and maintenance of our body tissues and account for one out of every 6 million cells. Each tissue has a unique population of specific SCs located in regions known as niches. In the SC niche, the SCs exist in a unique dormant state known as quiescence, and remain in this state until they are given the cues to be activated.

Activated stem cells go through two stages of development referred to as proliferation and differentiation. During proliferation, biochemical cues cause the cells to reproduce, resulting in an expanded population of similar cells. Differentiation puts a stop to proliferation with specific biochemical cues that cause the proliferating cells to differentiate into a specific type of cell. Once a stem cell has differentiated, it has a finite life span and is limited in how many times it can reproduce. The number of times a differentiated cell can reproduce is referred to as its Hayflick number.

Cancer results when a stem cell is stuck in proliferation, and is therefore not given the cues to differentiate. This situation results in a continually expanding population of undifferentiated cells that can not only exist anywhere in the body (metastasis), but also have unlimited life spans (no Hayflick number).

The biochemical cues for proliferation and differentiation are based on genes specific to each tissue type. In general, genes that initiate proliferation are called oncogenes while genes that initiate differentiation are called tumor suppressors. Cancer, therefore, could be seen as an over-activation of oncogenes accompanied by the inhibition of tumor suppressors. It is the ratio of oncogenes to tumor suppressors that determines the aggressiveness of the cancer.

Another key piece in the growth of cancers is a process called angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the physiological process that tumors use in order to recruit new blood vessels in order to sustain their continual growth. They do this by over-expressing genes that initiate and direct the growth of new, leaky blood vessels from existing ones. Both angiogenesis and the spontaneous formation of new blood vessels (vasculogenesis) are initiated by unique combinations of genes.

Standard chemotherapeutic agents inhibit rapidly dividing cells during treatment, but do not affect dormant cancer initiating SCs. An example of this is shown in a side affect of treatment. During chemotherapy, patients lose their hair (rapidly dividing cells), but their hair typically grows back soon after treatment. This is due to the dormant SCs located in the hair shaft, which were not affected by the chemotherapy. It is this presence of dormant cancer initiating SCs combined with the occurrence of angiogenesis in-between treatment regimes that leads to disease recurrence.

The following link allows you to access the genes involved with various types of cancers.

http://www.genome.jp/kegg/

Alex Rolland is a cancer researcher, educator, and CEO of Cancer treatment Options and Management (http://www.ctoam.com/). CTOAM is a personalized cancer research company that specializes in using the most current peer reviewed scientific research on cancer diagnostics, treatments, nutraceuticals, and clinical trials to educate patients on the treatments and diets that provide the best statistical chances for success.


View the original article here

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Lung Cancer Screening - Do Chest X-Rays Help?

There is one indisputable fact about lung cancer -- the earlier the disease is detected, the better the chances of curing it. This is why lung cancer screening is of prime importance. Doctors point out that although the overall survival rate for lung cancer at the five-year mark is only 15%, the survival rate for those whose cancer was detected early and could be surgically treated is as high as 80%. For this reason, some doctors recommend periodic lung cancer screening with chest x-rays. Once this disease has progressed somewhat, it will spread rapidly to other areas of the lung and to critical organs all over the body. At that stage, surgery is no longer a viable treatment method. Unfortunately, the early stages of lung cancer do not give rise to any alarming symptoms. Common symptoms include a persistent cough, a tendency to get respiratory illnesses, etc. These symptoms are not linked to lung cancer alone. This is why lung cancer is rarely diagnosed till it is too late. In this con...
Read more

Who should get a CT scan to screen for lung cancer?

By Jenifer Goodwin HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- Annual low-dose CT scans cut the death rate from lung cancer by 20% in heavy smokers and formerly heavy smokers, compared to those who get annual chest X-rays, according to the results of a major National Cancer Institute study released on Wednesday. Experts are calling the findings a major advance in efforts to combat lung cancer deaths. By catching the cancer early, the tumors can be removed surgically -- hopefully before they've spread and become very difficult to cure. "This is a momentous time in the history of public health research," said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "The NLST [National Lung Screening Trial] is the best-designed and best-performed lung cancer screening study in history." Yet the findings raise as many questions as they answer, said Dr. Harold Sox, a professor emeritus of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School who wrote an...
Read more

Throat Cancer Survival Rate - Know Your Chances

If you haven't known yet, the throat cancer survival rate is usually based on each stage of the cancer. This really isn't surprising knowing that most cancer survival percentages are estimated by their stages. A throat cancer survival rate may be measured by 5 years or 10 years period. But recently, most researchers are now using the 5 years time period when conducting survival rate studies of most cancers. Cancer of the throat is the cancer of our voice box (larynx) and its surrounding tissues. The most prominent parts of our throat are the larynx and the pharynx but most cancers arise from the former, accounting to nearly half of all throat cancer cases in America. Statistical studies will tell you that in the us alone, more than 25,000 people are being diagnosed of this type of cancer per year. Smoking is one of the major predisposing factors of this cancer, therefore, the prevalence rate of acquiring this disease is higher in male than in female. As the person ages, the ch...
Read more