Useful Information About A Cancer Cell
Cancer cells grow and continuously divide at a very high rate which is unregulated. Though they are common in the human body they become malignant when natural killer cells are unable to detect and destroy them. In the past it was thought that the failure of a cancer cell to be detected or destroyed was because of a weak immune system in the victims body. However recent studies have disapproved this theory.
Lack of the body to detect cancerous cells is due to a lack of specific molecules that are co-stimulated to aid in the reaction of lymphocytes and antigens. Research into stem cells has shown that excessively high SP2 protein can cause them to turn into cancerous cells.
Other conditions that can lead to the spread of this disease include a weak immune system, age, viruses, genetics and the environment. All types of cancers start in a cell because it is the basic unit of life. If you want to understand this disease it is important to understand what takes place when ordinary cells start to become cancerous.
The human body is made up of numerous different kinds of cells. To make more they divide in a manner which is controlled. This process ensures that cells are always in numbers that are required by the body. When some cells gets damaged or become old they usually die and then they are replaced by new ones.
Sometimes these orderly processes go wrong. It is not unusual for the DNA of certain cells to become changed or damaged. This produces mutations that affect the division as well as growth of the cells. If such a scenario happens then the cells do not die when they are expected to. The body then creates other cells that are not necessary. When this happens a couple of times a mass of tissues referred to as a tumor is formed.
Mutations usually accumulate. This is the reason why cancers are prevalent in old people. White blood cells are expected to use a system of dual receptors in order to determine which cells need to be killed. In case cells are producing infected molecules such as MIC-B and MIC-A on their surface then they should be detected and killed. Cells that are turning into tumors or are experiencing stress are also identified and killed.
Some types of cancers are known to have existed from as early as 1600BC. Descriptions go way back to ancient Egypt. However the understanding of this condition was advanced significantly in the Renaissance period. Rudolf Virchow is credited as being the first person to discover a cancerous cell. He was a German politician and biologist.
A cancer cell possesses special features that make it somehow immortal. One of these features is the enzyme telomerase which extends its lifespan. Telomerase of most other cells reduces after the process of division takes place. However in cancerous cells it extends. This explains why cells that are cancerous accumulate over time to create tumors. Cancer can be treated if it is detected in the early stages.
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