Bert Vogelstein described the slow march of cancer from one mutation to the next, while cancer biologists were investigating the function of the mutation. They knew there were two types of mutations. Either oncogenes become active or tumor suppressor genes become inactive. The uncontrolled cell division caused by them is cancer but cancer is not so simple.
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Cancer activates in the body, destroys tissue, spreads
from one place to another. Attacks organs. Builds houses in remote places. To
properly understand cancer, biologists need to link cancer cell gene mutations
to the complex and multifaceted behavior of these cells.
Genes encode proteins, and proteins often act as tiny
switches. Others activate or deactivate proteins. Protein "A" will
turn on protein "B". Which will turn "J" on and
"D" off, which will turn "R" on. This molecular waterfall
is called the signaling pathway of the protein. And such pathways are
constantly moving in the cells. The signals come and go and the cell continues
to function according to the environment.
The cancer biologist discovered that the proteolytic
gene and the tumor suppressor gene are the ones that sit at the center of these
signaling pathways and play a key role in them.
For example, the Ross gene activates a protein called
MAC. Enables cell division. These steps are called the Ross McArch Pathway. And
in normal cells, they are regulated in a very tight way. The constant presence
of Ross in the cancer cell keeps the mac and the presence of the mac keeps the extract
on. This is due to a defect in cell division.
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But this active pathway (Ross to Mac extract) not only
accelerates cell division but also interferes with other pathways and disrupts
many other functions in cancer cells. Juda Fokman at Boston Children's Cancer
Hospital in the 1990s showed that certain dynamic signaling pathways (including
ropes) in cancer cells make it possible for blood vessels to grow nearby. And
so the tumor begins to regulate its own blood supply. A network of blood
vessels begins to form around it and then begins to grow. Fokman called it
tumor angiogenesis. This allows the cancerous tumor to provide food for itself.
Harvard scientist Stan Corsmeier discovered other
pathways that began with mutated genes. These pathways blocked the cell's path
to death. Because of this, cancer cells are able to resist death.
Similarly, there are other pathways that enable cancer
cells to move. It is the ability to move from one tissue to another or to
metastasize.
Many other genetic predispositions strengthen the
cell's ability to survive in difficult locations. And so it is possible for
them to invade other organs through the blood. When they arrive at the wrong
place, their function of being rejected and destroyed is lost.
In short, cancer is not only genetic in its origin, it
is completely genetic. Mutations increase the ability to survive, to grow, to
move, to take up the blood supply that carries food and oxygen. This is the
life of cancer.
Importantly, these active genetic waterfalls are what
the body uses in certain situations. The genes that activate movement are the
ones that normal cells use for movement. For example, when the cells of the
immune system have to reach the site of infection, this is their technique.
Cancer hacks this technique for itself.
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Similarly, tumor angiosperms use the same pathways
that are used to heal wounds to divert blood vessels.
There is nothing new in all this, nothing outside the
body. The life of cancer is a new organization of body life. And this is our
own reflection.
Susan Sontag warns that metaphors should not be used
too much to describe a disease, but it is not a metaphor. Until its last
molecular basis ... Cancer cells are extremely active, survival experts,
looking for the art of survival and growing ... It's just like us.
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