• Question: Haw dose cancer work

    Asked by anon-321648 on 10 Jun 2022.
    • Photo: Jocelyn Bisson

      Jocelyn Bisson answered on 10 Jun 2022:

      Cancer happens when a cell in the body becomes mutated and starts to multiply and spread abnormally. Mutations (damage to the DNA) can happen in any cell of the body and therefore there are many different types of cancer depending on the cell the mutation started in (lung, brain, bowel etc).

    • Photo: Seung Hyun Lee

      Seung Hyun Lee answered on 13 Jun 2022:

      Did you know cancer is derived from the Latin word for crab?

      The word ‘cancer’ originates from the Latin word for crab. Just like how the animal crab has its feet, cancers can stretch to the neighbouring groups of cells or tissue. When you look at some cancers removed from patients or scanned images, it almost looks like they have fingers that invade their neighbours. They can even travel to different sites or organs by using blood vessels, nerves and other ways of travelling.

      When you wonder how cancer occurs, it is good to think about how normal cells work and compare it with how cancers work.

      Broadly, cancers can occur when their cells’ genetic programme becomes abnormal so they no longer act like normal cells. Normal cells are programmed to grow and stop growing as needed. Just like car pedals/brakes, cells react to ‘on’ or ‘off’ signal to grow or stop growing. For example, when one gets a paper cut, his or her skin cells and their associated cells such as blood vessels and nerves heal the damage to become normal skin again. When such damage is healed, and depending on their ability to grow, cells can slow down or stop growing.

      In contrast, cancers have a broken brake. They stop behaving like normal cells. Cancer cells grow uncontrollably and may gain ability to invade and travel to distant sites (metastasis). There are also various factors that influence how cancers grow.

      Understanding the causes, contributing factors, and likely future behaviour over time, help to come up with strategies to prevent and treat cancers. This is why understanding how cancers work is so important, and many scientists like myself are working on it. Our understanding of cancers is evolving every day.

    • Photo: Maria Peiris Pages

      Maria Peiris Pages answered on 13 Jun 2022:

      Cancer happens when a normal cell in the body starts proliferating out of control after receiving some external stimuli (smoking, alcohol, obesity, etc). If the mechanisms of control that eliminate cells that proliferate in an abnormal way are impaired, these cell will multiply into a tumour. That’s how cancer starts!

    • Photo: Karin Purshouse

      Karin Purshouse answered on 15 Jun 2022: last edited 15 Jun 2022 9:58 am

      Cells normally work in a very organised manner. They do a specific task in a specific place – like a heart cell knows how to beat, or a skin cell knows how to protect our bodies. They know when to grow, when to multiply, and importantly, when to stop. Even more importantly, normal cells have processes to stop any mistakes getting through – they are ruthless in killing any cells that have mistakes.
      Cancer happens when a cell manages to get a genetic change, or mutation, that changes these qualities. One change can then multiply, and often create other changes, and before you know it, you have a lot of cells growing in an abnormal way. That means all the qualities I just described above – growing in a certain place, for a certain task, in an organised way – goes out the window!

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