Cells make up organs in our body. So long as they live on, they are in the process of splitting, forming new cells.
Apart from the exceptional cranial nerves cells that stop growing since the day of birth, without undergoing any splitting, cells of all other organs have varying life-spans during which they split.
Cells such as white blood cells only survive for 1 or 2 days, whereas, muscular cells live on for several months. The time required for splitting of the cells is usually 6 to 8 hours which are not related to their life-spans. Thus, no matter at any time, there is repeated and continual splitting of cells in the body, cell splitting under present discussion, or growth, is to maintain a stable condition for all organs and tissues and is a physiological phenomenon under . precise control which makes the body healthy and stable. For instance, when part of the liver is incised in a operation, the remaining cells of the liver will steadily grow under cerebral signals within a
time-span to restore to normal size before the operation. This is one of the most important and major functions of cells.
Then what happens if the cells, which resemble a precision computer inside the body, suddenly lose their normal functions and are out of control ? The cells will fail to receive the command to stop growth, and will repeatedly grow without a limit.
Perhaps, someone may think:
"Will it be nice to keep on generating new cells all the time ?„
However, the cells, which continuously grow before the end of their life, may exceed the capacity of the tissue and form into an abnormal stiff lump, which may possibly damage the organs and tissues from within.
Usually, we call this stiff lump "tumor", of which those affecting life to a lesser extent are known as "benign tumors" whereas those being dangerous and likely to cause death are known as "malignant tumors" The so-called "cancerous tumor" is a disease of malignant tumor.
Features of malignant tumors
Why may malignant tumors in a carcinomatosis endanger life ? We are going to explain the features and functions of malignant tumors.
When the malignant tumor expands, it presses against the surrounding cells and tissues, showing its invasive nature (invading the outlying tissues) and metastasis nature (being implanted on other organs through body liquid and cavity and grow there).
It is commonly recognized that these malignant tumors are caused by damaged DNA, which lost control in the formation of cells, which merely multiply by repeated growth. The cells grow uncontrollably by unlimited splitting, and when they expand to the adjacent tissues, they
tend to destroy the normal cells and tissues.
What is even more worrying is the human body is filled with blood vessels and lymphatic glands, which may carry the abnormal cells from one tissue to another, where they start to split and grow. These are special features of cancerous tumors -- invasion and metastasis.
Causes of having cancerous tumors
The cancerous cells which undergo repeated invasion and metastasis are originally formed by splitting from one cell. Even though the benign tumor, which slowly grows in a place, does not endanger life, yet only one cell of the malignant tumor, which consistently invade and migrate, is
sufficient to cause death. Such cancerous cells grow at different pace from several weeks to several tens of years depending on the different types of carcinomatosis. Generally speaking, they undergo several stages of change repeatedly within the period of 10 to 20 years. A cancerous cell grows to roughly 1 gm by 30 splitting and to 1 kg by 40 splitting. The period between the
30 to 40 times is the most important one to fight against the carcinomatosis.
When the cells split to 30 times, the cancerous tumor is no larger than the tip of a finger, which is difficult to be noticed with human eyes for the irregularity. However, in just a short time later, it grows to the size of a fist when the cells split by 40 times. Human beings are at the moment
unable to do anything about such cancerous tumors. During the period from early to final stage of cancer development, that is, when the cells repeatedly split by 30 times to 40 times, it is most essential to keep the cancerous tumor under control howsoever.
What then are the reasons for causing abnormal splitting of cells which gives rise to a cancerous tumor ?
As I have just mentioned, if the gene - DNA, which forms up the cell, is damaged, it will lose control. Next, I am going to explain why the damaged DNA will give rise to tumor.
The human body has basic instinct to relieve toxic. For instance, it may distinguish any intruding chemical or other abnormal substances that are "harmful to the body" and excrete them out of the body as excretions. If a carcinogenic substance, on disrupting the toxic-relief protection of the
body and accumulates in it, the DNA in the cell will suffer harm abnormally. As you may know, DNA is like a plan of genes. Due to the said harm the design plan is marked with incorrect lines and diagrams.
In this way, the normal tissue will undergo sudden structural change to generate gene of invasive and malignant nature. The malignant genes disperse in the cell in a continuous and abnormal way. The abnormal phenomenon, which adversely affects the functions of the cells, causing them to
grow in such a rapid pace, in line with the increase in the number of cells, as to form into a cancerous tumor with invasive and metastasis characteristics
Normal cells and cancerous cells
By reference to: “Medical encyclopedia for family” ( Bulletin of Housewife and Living)
Article reproduced from http://www.aboutcancer.info/
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