“Ok, listen up people! We’ve only got 9 months to get you guys into
tip top shape, and then… it’s game time.
You may just be young embryonic cells now, but when I get through with you,
you’ll be more than ready to take on the game of life,” yelled the coach,
staring down firmly at each undifferentiated cell in the little forming fetus. “You may be able to nurse off your mommy’s
umbilical cord right now, but that’s not going to happen forever. Pretty soon you’re going to be out there on
your own and if you don’t follow what I’m saying, you’re going to be in a world
of trouble. You’re going to need the
information I’m giving you, so listen up!
The most important thing you have to remember is to never, ever, under
any circumstances… give a cancer cell a cookie!”
The little cells had been
listening as intently as they could, but their immature attention spans
couldn’t hold on any longer after a long day of learning. Soon, they were all giggling uncontrollable
at the thought of cookies causing their coach to look so stern! “What are you laughing at? There’s no laughing in cell differentiation
class!” scolded their coach. Brought abruptly
back to attention, they looked intently once again at their teachers face. “That’s better. Now, stick with me you
younglings and we’ll have you in tip top shape before anyone can say ‘Rockabye
Baby on the Treetop.’ Any questions?”
One tentative hand rose up to
ask the question they’d all been wondering.
“Umm coach? I though Instructor
Ribosome said that nutrient cookies are good for us. They’re full of oxygen, glucose and all the
wonderful nutrients that help us grow!
Wouldn’t that help those poor, deformed cancer cells you were showing us
pictures of earlier?”
“Ah…. You’d think that, but
there’s a very important reason why we say to never under any circumstances
feed a cancer cell… Ok, I can see that’s not going to fly with you guys. Lesson time!”
All the kids quickly sat up straight and focused as attentively as their
young brains would let them.
“If you give a cell a cookie, no
big, it will just process it into energy that’ll help the whole body to
function properly. But when you give a
cancer cell a cookie… watch out because it won’t just end there, it never just
ends there… First though, can anyone
tell me what we talked about yesterday?
Does anyone know how a cancer cell becomes a cancer cell in the first
place? Yes, Milly Myocyte?”
“A cell turns into a cancer cell
when something messes with its information manual, its DNA code.”
“That’s right Milly. You’ve been given a set of specific
instructions about how to act, when to grow, when to stop growing, what to make
and things like that. But, when
something like a free radical gets into that manual, it changes those
instructions. Then, after enough
mutations happen to that manual, poor little, nice cells turn into
uncontrollable monsters just like that!
Now, does anyone remember what you can do to try and prevent anything from happening to your precious manuals?”
“Eat a lot of antioxidants!”
“Precisely, so you were paying
attention!”
“Yes teacher, but I still don’t
understand why we can’t give cancer cells cookies. Maybe if it’s some supercharged nutrients, it
will help them get back on track!”
“No, no youngling… that won’t
work at all because it won’t end there!
They’ll just keep going and going and...
You see, it’s like this…
If you give a cancer cell a
cookie, it’s going to ask for a glass of blood.
When you give him that little
bit of oxygen and nutrients, he’ll probably ask you for a space to grow.
When you give him space to grow,
then he’ll divide and make a friend. When
he’s finished growing a friend, then they’ll both ask for more food.
If they get some more nutrients,
they’ll make it a party and rapidly divide to create more friends (oncogenesis).
Pretty soon, they won’t be
enough room for them all, so then they’ll want to expand into neighboring
homes. At that point, you might try to
tell them to stop dividing because they’re taking up all the room, but they’ll
just turn a deaf ear to your signals.
By that point, they’re going to
need a boatload of oxygen, glucose, hormones and nutrients to survive, so
they’re going to want some more blood.
But it won’t stop there. When I
say blood, I mean they’re going to want their own dedicated blood supply, so
they’re going to want to grow their own blood vessels (angiogenesis).
Then, inevitably, there’s going
to be some that get tired of hanging out with the original site crowd and want
to start a party somewhere else, so they break away from their current party
and spread through the blood or lymphatic systems to a new location (metastasis). Once they’re happily at home in another part
of the body, then they’ll just start the process all over again.
Then soon, all of your resources
will go to feeding those abnormal cells and there won’t be any energy left to
spare on things like maintaining homeostasis!”
“Wow…” one of the cells uttered
in astonishment. “And that all just
started with a simple, yummy cookie?”
“That’s right kids! So please,
whatever you do, don’t give cancer cells any nutrient cookies, or else, before
you know it, they’re going to want a glass of blood!”
This tale has been simplified for the sake of giving a
basic understanding of the workings behind cancer. If you’re interested, I highly recommend
checking out some of the additional resources for more in-depth
information. And if you find any other
great resources, let me know so it can be included in the additional resources
for others to find!
Medical Morales to Remember:
- Carcinogen – something that damages a cell and makes it more likely to become cancerous
- Mutation – changes in a cell’s DNA
- Cancer cells – develop from multiple mutations occurring either during reproduction or from carcinogens. Precancerous cells often are destroyed through apoptosis or by the immune system, so it typically takes a long time before a true cancerous cell escapes the body’s natural defenses and starts to multiply.
- Characteristics (From Cancer Research UK):
- Don’t stop reproducing themselves - Oncogenes
- Have Tumor Suppressor Genes turned off – genes which tell the cell when to stop multiplying and to destroy itself (apoptosis) if damaged
- Don’t listen to signals from other cells
- Don’t stick together (metastasis – travel to other parts of the body)
- Don’t specialize, but stay immature
- Angiogenesis – creation of a new blood vessel
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