are differences between normal and cancer cells
What is the difference between cancer cells and normal cells?
To understand cancer, it is important to learn first about the normal functioning of cells.
Growth and maintenance of the human body
Our body is made up of tiny cells, including skin cells, muscle cells, heart cells, nerve cells and bone cells. When a baby grows, the number of cells increases very quickly. The cell grows slightly, and then divides into two cells (figure 1). After a certain period, each of these cells will be divided in turn, and so on.
DIVISION cell NORMALEA the adult age, the body ceases to grow. However,
it suffered much wear, both indoors and outdoors, and 'maintenance'
requires that our body constantly replaces the cells waste by new cells.
Cell division is continuing therefore but at a slower pace. From the outside, we see dead skin that peels and falls in any small pieces that the skin renews itself.
Although our cells continue to divide to replace those that are worn, this takes place in an orderly and systematic manner. The
reason is that each cell contains in itself the genetic 'instructions'
that govern the speed of cell division and the development and cell
death. The balance between development and cell death to maintain the normal functioning of the human body.
Unruly cell division
Benign growths
Sometimes,
a cell can begin to grow without regard to the normal balance between
development and cell death, and a small harmless mass of cells can form.
These cell masses harmless, or "benign", can appear in any part of the body, including the prostate, skin or intestines.
Malignant growths
In other cases, it happens that a cell grows and divides without respecting the needs and limitations of our body. Cells with this aggressive behavior are called "malignant" cells They can reproduce to form large cell masses or spread to other parts of the body. A mass of such cells is a 'cancer '.
When clusters of these cells reach to other parts of the body, they are called 'metastases '. A cancer that continues to grow will eventually crush and destroy the part of the body or the body where it is located.
Different types of cancer
Each type of cancer is characterized by the type of cell that triggered the cancer. As a result, cancer can be formed of glandular, muscle, nerve or fat cells. Each of these types of cancer behaves differently and is named differently:
adenocarcinoma (cancer of a gland)
Leiomyosarcoma (cancer of muscle cells)
neurosarcome (nerve cell cancer)
Liposarcoma (cancer of the fat cells)
Ability to spread of cancer cells
In addition to their controlled growth, most normal cells remain in the region where they belong and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer cells do not at all follow this principle and can be spread in different ways to other parts of the body (metastasize). They can therefore invade and destroy the body of origin, or borrow the lymphatic system or bloodstream to organs such as bone, lung and liver.
When cancer spreads, it retains the properties of the original cancer. For example, prostate cancer or a breast cancer that invades bones remains of the prostate or breast cancer. Under the microscope, it has the characteristics of cancer of the breast or prostate, and, under treatment, it behaves also like prostate or breast cancer, and not like a bone cancer.
Original cancer is called ' primary '. Cancer that has spread to another site called 'secondary' or 'metastatic.
Ability of cancer cells to trick the immune system
Our immune system is made up of "white blood cells", specialized cells in the recognition and the destruction of foreign material in the body, such as bacteria, viruses and abnormal cells or unknown. Cancer cells arrive in some way to cheat our system of detection, so that our immune system does not attack cancer cells, either in the primitive home, in blood vessels or the site of metastases.
Excerpt from the Intelligent Patient Guide to Prostate Cancer by S. Larry Goldenberg, MD, FRCS
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