Immortality or eternal life is a dream of most of the people since long time ago. Most of us wish to live eternally in the world, at least live for longer. However, do you know what will happen if our cells become immortal and will not die eternally? These immortal cells will cause a lot of problem to our health and body. These cells are the cancer cells, the name that we are more familiar with.

Relationship between Cancer and Apoptosis

Cancer is because of the uncontrolled proliferation of abnormal cells that possess many oncogenic mutations (Avi et. al., 2008). Why is it called abnormal cells? This is because these cells are immortal even though they are malfunction. As we all know, normally our body cells will be eliminated if there are abnormalities like abnormal genes number. When the regulation of the cell cycle is disturbed, the tumour starts to grow (Pongpun et. al., 2009). These cancer cells cannot be eliminated via apoptosis, the programmed cell death mechanism.

Apoptosis is an essential pathway that eliminates the abnormal cells which are a serious threat to the human’s life (Avi et. al., 2008). So, apoptosis kills most of the tumourigenic cells and provides an initial important barrier against cancer disease (Liang et. al., 2009). However, as the malignant cells start to progress with the cells acquiring additional mutations, it allows the tumour cells to avoid from apoptotic death (Avi et. al., 2008). As a result, this abnormal apoptosis contributes to cancer initiation, development and treatment failure. Therefore, the cancer cells will gain their immortality and live eternally in our body. They will keep on replicate in our body to form tumour.

As the consequence of apoptosis does not deduce inflammatory or immune responses, it is the best way to kill the cancer cell through various anticancer treatments. Identifying the blockage in apoptosis and consequently to selectively induce the programmed cell death in cancer cells is a promising therapeutic strategy for many cancers (Liang et. al., 2009).

Immortal Cells, Good or Not Good?

As we can see, if the cells transform to cancer cells and become immortal, they will cause us problem. According to cancer research, these cells will continue to replicate in our body. The accumulation of these immortal cells will block the functional normal cells to grow. Sooner or later, our body will full of these immortal cells and the deficient normal cells cannot sustain our life anymore.

In conclusion, immortal cells are not good for us. “Nothing in the universe is able to last long eternally unchanged”. No matter how strong we are, we still cannot fight with this universal truth. What we can do is to cherish what we have now. Cherish our time. Cherish our beloved. Cherish our health and body.

Can I Have Your Feedback?

Have you ever think of to have an immortal life? Can you share with us the reason why you think of it?

What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal? is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• Apoptosis and Lung Cancer
• Apoptosis | Type 1 Programmed Cell Death Pathway
• 4 Apoptosis Protein Families
• Apoptotic Pathway

Cancer prevention is a popular topic that people wish me to write more in my Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog. Cancer prevention is the best possible way to reduce the death rate of cancer worldwide. According to Fundamentals of Cancer Prevention, written by David S. A. and Lisa M. H., cancer prevention research can be divided to 3 approaches to target different aspects in order to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary prevention.
 

Primary Cancer Prevention

Primary cancer prevention is an approach to reduce the impact of carcinogens. We can do this through administration of a chemopreventive agent or remove the environmental carcinogens. The main aim of primary prevention is to prevent a cancer from the very beginning to the developing by reducing individual risk.

 
There are many primary cancer prevention methods which include the lifestyle modification or interventions that modify risk. These methods will become more effective if those cancers in which causes are known.
 
Below are some of the factors that can help to reduce overall cancer incidence:

i. Minimize the exposure to carcinogens. For example, we should avoid from consuming tobacco which contains carcinogen.
 
ii. Dietary modification. For example, we should take balanced meal and reduce the consuming of salt, sugar and high cholesterol foods.
 
iii. Increasing physical activity. For example, we should do some exercises during our daily life like jogging, swimming and so on to keep our body fit.
 
As we all know, unhealthy diet and tobacco use are the leading risk factors for cancer. Smoking cessation is the best way to avoid ourselves from cancer developing. Benefis of quitting smoking begin within the first year of stopping and continue to increase. If you wish to know more about the benefits of smoking cessation, you may read the 15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation. In addition, the role of diet, nutrition and maintaining a healthy body weight is critical to lessen the cancer risk.
 

Secondary Cancer Prevention

Secondary cancer prevention is an approach to detect the abnormal changes at the beginning of the development of malignancy. It involves screening and early detection methods like mammogram, pap test and so on. This can help us to identify any abnormal changes of our body before they become cancerous. Therefore, it is effective to prevent cancer from fully developing. Sometimes, secondary cancer prevention can involve the treatment of precancerous lesions in an attempt to reverse carcinogenesis so that the lesion can regress.
 

Tertiary Cancer Prevention

Tertiary cancer prevention is an approach to control the cancer and prevention of disease-related complications. It involves a variety of aspects of patient care such as quality of life, adjuvant therapies, surgical intervention and palliative care.
 
In conclusion, we can see that the primary cancer prevention is the main role of cancer prevention. Unfortunately, the primary prevention research and efforts are largely underfunded. This lack of prioritization cause the delays in improving and delivering early detection and prevention methods that can save millions of lives.
 

Do you know any methods of cancer prevention? Come and share with us! Prevention is always better than cure!

Say No to Cancer! – 3 Approaches to Prevent Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• Anti-angiogenic Therapy to Treat Cancer
• Cytogenetic Studies in Malignancy Cancer
• Be Aware of Environmental Exposure – Lung Cancer Risk Factor

I think I never mention about the relationship between cytogenetics and cancer research in this blog. Cytogenetic studies are proven that can assist to define the diagnosis and deliver clear prognostic differences in cancer. There are many cytogenetic studies of malignancy have been gone through and most of them are related to hematologic disorders. However, those studies constitute only small percentage of all cancer malignancies.
 

Clinical Value of Cytogenetic Studies in Malignancy Cancer

Recently, there has been a significant progress in knowledge of the recurrent abnormalities in many of solid tumors as well as hematologic malignancies. Consequently, the clinical value of cytogenetic studies in cancer malignancy has been appreciated after the cytogenetic studies of some solid tumors moving out of cancer research environment.
 
Apart from this, there would be little clinical value in doing cytogenetic studies in cancer malignancy if all the patients with a particular cancer died. The researchers only manage to probe the origins of cancer for those patients. However, after researching in all tumors type by using cytogenetic technique, the presence or absence of many of the genetic abnormalities found has been related to different responses to treatment. Since that, the genetic and cytogenetic studies start to be recognized as important and one of the best choices of treatment for a cancer patient.
 

Cytogenetic Studies Helps Diagnostic Investigation in Malignancy Cancer

Consequently, cytogenetic analysis of cancer malignancy is considered to provide rapid, accurate and specific results to aid the clinical professionals. This can help to choose the most appropriate type of treatment to the cancer patient in shorter time. However, John Swansbury stated that the diagnosis of a malignancy can be traumatic, and an accurate and early indication of every patient’s prognosis is valuable.
 
In conclusion, a cytogenetic study remains an essential part of diagnostic investigations of every patient with hematologic malignancy and certain solid tumors without denying the valuable contributions made by other genetic assays.

Reference: Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 220: Cancer Cytogenetics: Methods and Protocols. Edited by: John Swansbury © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
 

Do you know more about cytogenetic studied on malignancy? Come and share with us.

SA44FVP76BKR

Cytogenetic Studies in Malignancy Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• Autosomal Aneuploidy – Cytogenetic Abnormalities
• Techniques Used in Leukemia Research
• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• Human Genome Project – Find out Human Database

Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is an essential cellular defence mechanism. What is the relationship between the apoptosis and lung cancer?
 

Caspase-3 as Biomarker of Apoptosis Related to Lung Cancer

In cancer research, we can use the biomarkers to predict the induction of apoptosis. Consequently, this enables us to identify the biological signs that may indicate increased risk for the disease. During the time the cells undergoing apoptosis, the cytochrome c will be released from mitochondria to the cytoplasm and activate the caspase-3. Caspase-3 plays an important role in apoptotic pathway. It has been recognized as biomarkers of apoptosis. The cancer research shows that there is a significant correlation between the expression of caspase-3, survival and metastasis in 135 non-small cell lung carcinomas.

2 Principal Signalling Pathways in Apoptosis Related to Lung Cancer

i. Extrinsic Apoptosis Pathway

In the extrinsic apoptosis pathway, polymorphisms influencing the FASL-FAS interaction will affect the lung cancer predisposition. In cancer research, there are 2 promoter SNPs of FAS and FASL will cause the increased risks of lung cancer.
 

ii. Intrinsic Apoptosis Pathway

In the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, caspase-9 is the only gene that has been detected for a role in lung cancer development. According to Park et al. cancer study, they found that two caspase-9 promoter SNPs were related to the significantly altered lung cancer risk.
 

Bcl-2 Proteins as Anti-apoptotic Proteins Causing Lung Cancer

As we all know, apoptosis is a highly programmed pathway that regulated by many of genes. One of the famous genes in apoptosis is Bcl-2 family genes. Bcl-2 is a proto-oncogene that is known to promote cell survival. The Bcl-2 proteins act as anti-apoptotic proteins that regulate the apoptosis. These proteins inhibit the apoptotic cascade.
 
By doing the cancer research on Bcl-2 mRNA expression in some tissues, the Bcl-2 mRNA expression in lung cancer tissues was significantly increased. This over-expression of Bcl-2 has been recognized to be early event in carcinogenesis that allows the cells with DNA damage to escape from normal mechanisms of apoptosis. In contrast, the lack of Bcl-2 expression may reduce the cause the relatively late in the pathogenesis in lung cancer.
 
In conclusion, lung cancer is highly associated with the apoptosis especially for the cancer research on finding the treatment. The cancer research needs to go further so that we can manipulate the apoptotic pathway for lung cancer treatment.
(Reference: David S. Albert, Lisa M. Hess. Fundamental of Cancer Prevention, Second edition)
 

Do you know any about the correlation between apoptosis and lung cancer? Come and share with us.

Apoptosis and Lung Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• 15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation
• Cigarette Smoking – Primary Risk Factor for Lung Cancer
• Introduction of Lung Cancer

Cancer accounts for more deaths than heart disease. Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells in the body. Our body produce cancer cell every day. How the cancer cell be eliminated by our body system? What is the signalling pathway control this system? The answer is Apoptosis, the type 1 programmed cell death pathway.
 
Apoptosis is a normal part of development. The term “apoptosis” comes from the Greek word for the natural process of leaves falling from trees or petals falling from flowers. It describes the common morphological changes that characterize the process of cellular self-destruction. In humans, about 10¹¹ cells die in each adult each day and are replaced by a new cell. Do you know how many cells we lose for a year through normal cell death? The answer is almost the entire weight of our body!
 

 
Apoptosis has evolved in multicellular animals as a means of eliminating abnormal cells that have a serious threat to the organism’s life. Therefore, apoptosis plays an essential role to kill most tumorigenic cells. However, sometimes the cell can acquire additional mutations that make the cell to avoid apoptotic death and thus enabling the malignant cell to progress.
 
Apoptosis provides an important barrier against cancer. We can eliminate the cancer cell by initiating the apoptosis. Traditional cancer therapies can activate apoptosis. However, the therapies do indirectly to initiate the apoptosis and often prohibited by the tumour resistance. In the advancing of cancer research, the knowledge about how apoptosis is initiated and how the cancer cells escape from the apoptotic fate have opened exciting new avenues for the development of cancer therapies.
 
Two signalling pathways initiate apoptosis through:

1. Intracellular Bcl-2 proteins.

2. Cell-surface pro-apoptotic receptors.
 
In conclusion, apoptosis is precisely regulated and is crucial in all muticellular organisms controlling the number of cells and eliminating the cancerous cells. The cancer research will continuously to explore more about the pro-apoptotic activation to deal with the cancer cell.

“Life is pleasant.
Death is peaceful.
It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”Isaac Asimov

Apoptosis | Type 1 Programmed Cell Death Pathway is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• Top 10 Discoveries of Cancer Treatment in 2009
• Apoptosis and Lung Cancer
• 5 Common Ways To Treat Cancer

According to cancer research, about 60% of humans in the world develop cancer in their life. Some of the cancer cells can grow and metastasize until upset normal bodily functions. It becomes one of the most frequent causes of human death. Different types of cancer might induce varies of death rate. Usually, lung and pancreatic cancer are the worst! These two kinds of cancer will cause the death within a year. However, not all cancers are untreatable. There are 5 common ways to treat cancer. Often, the objective of treatment is to cure the cancer. In other cases, the goal is to control the cancer disease or to reduce the symptoms. Because treatment for cancer can also damage healthy cells and tissues, it often causes side effects.

5 Common Ways to Treat Cancer

1) Surgery

Surgery is one of the cancer treatment methods that remove cancer by operation. This is the most common way to treat cancer. It is very rare that the cancer will spread the disease during the surgery. The cancer does not cause disease to be spread by exposing to the air.
Side effects:
a) Terrible pain
b) Tired and weak

2) Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is a treatment that uses a radiation ray to kill cancer cells in a infected area. It can be done externally by a machine that aims the radiation at the targeted area. I can also be done internally by using needles, seeds, wires, and so on. The advantage of this treatment method is painless. Some people afraid that the external radiotherapy will cause the body become radioactive.  In fact, there is no such thing happen. However, a patient treated with internal radiation may need to stay in the hospital and quarantine from others until the permanent implant goes down to a safe level.
Side effects:
a) Feel very tired in the later weeks of treatment
b) Radiotherapy kills most of the white blood cells that protecting the body against infection.
c) Hair loss in treated area
d) Skin become red, dry, tender, and itchy

3) Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a method that uses the drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. However, the healthy cells can also be harmed. The doctor may use one drug or a combination of drugs to fully control the cancer cells from spreading. The body will start to produce the normal cell after the chemotherapy is over.
Side effects:
a) Hair loss
b) Temporary fatigue
c) Poor appetite, nausea and vomiting

4) Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy is a method that treats certain cancers with forbidding certain hormone from growth. This may include the use of drugs to stop the production of some hormones. Some hormone therapies even have to remove the hormone producing organ to stop the body from secreting the hormone anymore. For example, sometimes, we have to remove the ovary to treat the breast cancer. In some of the cases, the side effects of hormone therapy may be temporary or permanent.
Side effect:
a) Tired
b) Have fluid retention
c) Weight gain
d) Bone loss in premenopausal women

5) Biological therapy

Biological therapy is a method that uses our body immune system to fight the disease or to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment, directly or indirectly. This is the most suggested way to treat the cancer.
Side effects:
a) Cause flu-like symptoms
b) Bleed or bruise easily

The treatment of cancer may be only a method or a combination of methods. The best option is depending to the type and location of the cancer diseases. If the disease has spread to other parts of body, the combination methods might be used. Other factors are depending to the patient’s age, general health and so on. Patients may worry whether the side effects of treatment will become worse than the disease or not. Thus, patients and doctors will discuss the treatment options regarding the benefits of the treatment method and the risks of side effects.

5 Common Ways To Treat Cancer is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• 15 Benefits of Smoking Cessation
• Apoptosis and Lung Cancer
• Introduction of Lung Cancer
• Apoptosis | Type 1 Programmed Cell Death Pathway

Cancer is a complicated set of diseases which human still cannot really figure out what is going on. There are more than 200 types of diseases cause by cancer. Most of these cancer diseases possess the different properties and treatments.  There are three main types of cancer diseases.

3 Main Types of Cancer Diseases

1)  Carcinomas

Solid cancers are arisen from the epithelial cell that covering our inner and outer surfaces. Almost 90% of cancer diseases is Carcinomas.

2) Sarcomas

Sarcomas are solid cancers that developed from the connective tissue cells that form body structures. For example, muscle cells and bone are the connective tissue cells that popular in cancer disease.

3) Leukemias and lymphomas

Leukemias and lymphomas are cancers that caused by white blood cells. The properties and treatment of Leukemias will be very dissimilar according to the growth of the individual.

Cancers are named according to the organ from which the cancer cells originated. Below are some of the common cancer diseases.

Common Cancer Diseases

Retinoblastoma – cancer of eye

Osteosarcoma – cancer in bone

Melanoma – cancer in skin pigment cells

Lung cancer

Colon cancer

Prostate cancer

Breast cancer

Cancer cells spread away from the original tumor and entering the bloodstream or lymphatic system. The cells can invade other organs, forming new tumors that damage these organs. The spread of cancer is called metastasis. This means that some of the cancer cells we found on certain organ might not the origin place for them.

Thus, from knowing all of these kinds of cancer diseases, then we can go through each by each to explore more about the Cancer Research.

3 Main Types of Cancer Diseases is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• Apoptosis and Lung Cancer
• 5 Common Ways To Treat Cancer
• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• Say No to Cancer! – 3 Approaches to Prevent Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer may affect anyone of us. According to American Cancer Society, cancer contributes about 13% of human death in the world.

Our Body Produce Cancer Cell Everyday

Cancer begins in cells, the basic building blocks of body which I have been explained in my previous article about what is Cytogenetics. Our body consists of many types of cells. Normally, cells grow and divide to make more cells as they are needed to maintain our body healthy. However, sometimes the growth and division of the cell go wrong. Some of the new cells form when our body does not need them, and old cells do not die when they should. The process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells is known as carcinogenesis. These kind of extra cancer cells form a mass of tissue call tumor. Basically, not all the tumors can harm our body. There are two types of tumors.

Two Types of Tumors in Cancer

1) Benign tumors
Benign tumors are not cancer cells that will harm our body. It can be removed and in most cases, they do not come back. These kinds of tumor cells do not spread to other parts of the body. Therefore, benign tumors are not a threat to life.

2) Malignant tumors
Malignant tumors are cancer cells that will harm our body. It can be removed but in most cases, they will grow back. Cells in malignant tumors keep dividing without control. It can invade and destroy others adjacent tissues. These kinds of tumor cells can break away from just a tumor and enter bloodstream or lymphatic system. Therefore, malignant tumors are really a threat to life which we should pay attention to.

Usually, our body immune system will recognize the cancer cells and eliminate them from our body. However, why people still suffer a lot from the cancer? Why our body immune system cannot function well to eliminate those cancer cells? We will find out about this in Cytogenetics and Cancer Research soon.

Cancer In Our Body is a post from: Cytogenetics and Cancer Research

Related Posts

• What Will Happen If Our Cells Become Immortal?
• Say No to Cancer! – 3 Approaches to Prevent Cancer
• Cytogenetic Studies in Malignancy Cancer
• Apoptosis and Lung Cancer