random facts about cancer
(part 1 of ??? iâll probably keep making these every now and then)
the biggest risk factor for cancer is not genetic, or environmental; itâs aging. the older you are, the higher your risk of cancer.Â
when solid tumors (those that donât arise from cells in the blood) travel in the circulatory system to metastasize to other organs, they have a âshieldâ of platelets to protect them from immune cells and the sheer force of traveling through fast-moving blood.Â
every type of cancer has common sites of metastasis that the tumor âprefersâ to metastasize to. for example, breast cancers tend to metastasize to the brain, lungs, liver, and bone. the reason why, known as the âseed and soil hypothesisâ, is still being studied.Â
the process of metastasis is actually pretty challenging for the tumor; some scientists estimate that less than 0.01% of tumor cells that enter into systemic circulation actually become symptomatic metastases.Â
some cancers are very slow-growing and thus not very likely to kill the patient. for example, more patients die with prostate cancer than from prostate cancer, simply because the tumor is not as âaggressiveâ as others (but thereâs still a great number of patients who die from prostate cancer, so still a deadly disease).
pediatric cancers are almost always caused by a hereditary gene mutation, and thus sometimes theyâre easier to treat than some adult cancers (since scientists and health care workers know what to target).Â
potential tumor cells are being formed in our bodies every day, but our immune system is really great at picking them off. but sometimes, the tumors mutate in such a way that evades the immune system, and thatâs when the disease becomes more serious.Â
the extracellular space of tumor cells is slightly more acidic than usual, simply because most tumor cells utilize a different metabolic pathway (known as the Warburg Effect) and one of the byproducts is lactic acid, which they secrete out of the cell. (so that whole myth of eating acidic foods increases your risk of cancer is just a myth; they donât prefer acidic environments; they just happen to live in one.)
the first chemotherapy for cancer was discovered on accident when studying the effects of mustard gas during world war II. scientists saw that it depleted the bone marrow cells of exposed patients, and discovered it worked in killing lymphoma.Â
and speaking of, the hardest part about discovering anti-cancer treatments isnât finding something that kills the cancer cells; itâs finding something that kills tumor cells faster than it can kill normal cells aka the rest of the patient. because if itâs just about getting the cancer, well, we already have something that can kill 99.999% of tumors: bleach.Â
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