Conquering Cancer

A detailed Summary of Conquering Cancer

One of the first scientists to prove that cancer is genetic was Biologist, Dr. Weinburg. In Weinburg's experiment he took cancerous cells from rats' brains and mixed their DNA with that of normal cells. The result was that the cells became cancerous, proving that cancer is in genes. In recent years our knowledge about cancer and what causes it has greatly increased. We now know that vital genes mutating cause cancer. Just one mutated nucleotide out of 15,000 can turn what would be a normal cell into a cancerous one. These mutations have been linked to control cells. What scientists believe is that the signal that cells receive from control cells that tell them to divide, is being given without reason. They also think this has to do with the cell having too many receptors. All types of cancer are caused by cells dividing too rapidly or often, this causes abnormal growths. How you obtain a given form of cancer can differ greatly. Smoking, diet, chemicals, etc. can cause cancer or it could just be hereditary.

At this point the treatments we have for cancer are vague. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy destroy numerous body cells, and doctors can only hope to kill more bad cells than good. The most effecti

ve treatment would be to pinpoint the location of the genetic mutation and cure patients that way. Scientist said at a resent convention that this a focus of their approach to curing cancer. In early experiments with rats they were able to locate the unco genes. Unco genes are the mutated genes that cause cancer. What is far more interesting is that in rats with more aggressive tumors they found more unco genes and in rats with less aggressive tumors they found less unco genes. Also they found in more deadly tumors that there were more receptor on the cells.

Pat Steeg is a scientist who like many others is devoted to treating and hopefully curing cancer. Her research is focused on what causes the metastasis of cancerous tumors. While studying skin cancer in mice she discovered a gene that might tell if a tumor would spread or not. In cancer that did not spread the NM23 was normal, and in cancer that did spread it was turned off. Mice were injected with cancerous cells that had been altered so that the NM23 was normal and others were injected with cells in which the NM23 was turned off. As Steeg accurately predicted that in the mice with the altered cells the cancerous cells stuck together but in the mice with the NM23 that was turned off the cancer c

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Approximate Word count = 853
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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