Cancer - 6 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Because the idea of treatment is to destroy cancerous cells but the medicine can't distinguish between them really so it attacks normal cells too.
2 :
Chemotherapy is designed to kill fast growing cells like cancer, but it can also kill healthy cells, and the reason people lose their hair is because it is also a fast growing cell.
3 :
My chemo didn't hurt my non cancerous cells... It affects the cells with the fastest turnover so, like the cells of the heart wouldn't be damaged because cell turnover in the heart is very slow. I didn't even lose my hair from the chemo.
4 :
Because it is toxic.
5 :
Clearly the answer is actually quite complicated, but basically, older cancer treatments tended to be hard on non-cancerous cells because of they targeted necessary components for all cells to divide, not just the cancerous cells. As such, the cells that divided rapidly were more susceptible, and were thus killed off. Over time, however, extensive research has produced more targeted therapies that are able to select out certain markers on some cancer cell lines that are overexpressed compared with healthy cells, thereby limiting toxicity compared with older, less specific agents. Still other medications are able to target a particular type of cell (like a B cell for example), sparing many other types of cells from destruction. Which therapy will work depends on the cancer and certain cell markers on those cancer cells, in addition to specific patient factors and prior treatment attempts.
6 :
There are 3 major ways of treating cancer. First off cancer cells occur in most everyone, but our Immune Cells recognize them and take them out as foreign cells. Our Immune cells recognize them by the markers on their cell surface. Cancer cells can be quite devious though, The can become virtually "stealth" cells and avoid detection by our Immune System. Cancer cells are not like normal cells. Normal cells arise, do their work, replace themselves by cell division and then die. (Normal cells undergo a kind of cell-suicide termed Apoptosis). Cancer Cells, on the other hand arise, replace themselves and never die, they do not undergo Apoptosis, in cancer research we refer to them as immortals. They continue to replace themselves and each time they do they give rise to other cancer cells and so on and so on. Cancer cells are "rude", they grow on top of each other, essentially forming tumors. The reason that cancer treatment can be dangerous for normal (noncancerous) cells is that Cancer Cells still have some cell surface markers that designate them as being normal. ~~ in other words they evade your natural immune response that is hunting down "foreign" invaders. (such as virus, bacteria, etc). So how do we knock out the cancer cells without knocking out the normal cells? We are talking about targeting identification markers at molecular level on Cancer Cells that are different (distinct) from markers on our Normal Cells. We are not that sophisticated at being able to target only the cancer cells with no damage occurring to the normal cells. Cancer treatments are currently: 1) Cut the Cancer Tumor out ~~ we call that Surgery. If a surgical Cancer Doc, (surgical oncologist) cuts out a tumor, they often take additional tissue surrounding the tumor so as not to miss any "escapers"; 2) Burn the Cancer out ~~ we call that Radiation. Often this is also done following surgery to eliminate any "escapers". 3) Poison the Cancer out ~~ we call that chemotherapy. These are cancer drugs that target cells that undergo cell replication continually, Cancer cells replicate themselves at a high rate, unfortunately so do human hair cells and human intestinal cells ~~ thats why chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause temporary (but extreme) nausea from loss of cells that line the digestive tract; as well as loss of hair on the head and body. We are working on finding a marker that is specific to Cancer Cells and not Normal Cells. Then we could design selective therapies that would take out the cancer and not harm the normal cells. Perhaps in our lifetime...
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