Uncovering Cancer

Cancer targets one in every three people. It has some way or another touched all of us and those around us. Being currently a scientist in cancer research, I attempt to answer 5 burning questions that everyone has about cancer – in as simple, non-scientific terms as possible.

What is cancer?

Cancer is a disease that originates from our own bodies. The cells of many organs and parts of organs are regenerated on a daily basis, such as skin and intestines. This means that old cells die and new cells, which will be copies of the old ones, are made. There are mechanisms within our cells that initiate, hinder and control the generation and growth of the new cells, as well as the death of old or malfunctioning ones. Our DNA is the building block of cells and every function and feature of our bodies. The DNA code sequence has to be copied from the old cells to the new cells but this copying often comes with errors. Hundreds of these errors occur in each one of us within a day. However, cells have the way of fixing the errors. If not fixed, then a majority of them will not be harmful due to the location in the sequence. If at the wrong place though, an error could cause serious damage affecting the cell mechanisms that exist in the cells. This could result in the continuous and unstoppable generation and growth of cells, eventually leading to a tumour. These cells, even though normal to begin with, will soon be getting stacked and will begin accumulating more errors and developing new properties.

Imagine that you are hosting a party at your flat which can hold up to 100 people. If the security guy at the door falls asleep and fails to do his job properly, more guests will begin entering the flat. You are unable to control them and soon enough, you have 200 instead of a 100 guests. The guests are still normal people but they are packed. There is no space to move. Then the resources become sparse. Some guests begin opening windows to let fresh air in; others are calling for pizza deliveries since they are hungry – the cells in a tumour can actually extend and grow new paths for blood vessels so they can get their oxygen supply. The guests then begin making noise and the neighbours are disturbed. The guests begin breaking valuable stuff in your house. In the same way, a tumour begins pushing against surrounding organs, causing pain and malfunction of the organs. Eventually, a few of the guests might decide to take the party elsewhere; they crash at someone else’s place and start inviting more of their friends. And you got metastasis.

Is cancer a genetic or an environmental disease?

Cancer is affected by both genetics and by harmful environmental factors. If there is a mutation (an error in the DNA) that can be passed on from parent to child, then there are good chances the child will inherit it. It is not always the case but chances are certainly higher. This mutation will effectively lead to the same type of cancer being developed; that is why you hear that women who have first-degree relatives with breast cancer, are at greater risk and should be monitored more closely. They might have accumulated a mutated gene, which would increase their chance of developing breast cancer.

The environment affects greatly as well though, since certain factors, such as exposure to UV light or cigarette smoke or radioactive materials can damage our DNA, which would lead to more errors happening inside our bodies; more than our bodies are prepared for. Sequentially, more errors will escape the “fixing mechanisms”, therefore increasing the chances of one or more of these errors leading to the development of a tumour. However, we are all prone to developing cancer. A person with the perfect lifestyle and no history of cancers in his or her family can still have cancer. Genetics and environment simply increase the chances.

Will there ever be one cure for cancer?

No, personally I do not believe there will ever be one unique cure or prevention measure (eg. a vaccine) for cancer; at least not in the near future. This is because cancer is a complex disease, it consists of a number of “diseases” one could say and it varies according to the person, its location, its stage, its type, its growth rate. Cancer from person to person, from organ to organ, varies in so many ways; it is not like the common flu or diabetes or HIV. That is why the treatment of each cancer patient has to be designed accordingly and is usually a combinational one; i.e. surgery with chemotherapy or radiotherapy or hormonal therapy for example. Quite often, a rumour floats around that the “pill against cancer” has been found and the drug companies are not releasing it. Let me assure you that there is no such thing. First of all, the company that would sell this “pill” would make millions. Second of all, no self-respecting scientist that works in cancer research would get up in the morning to have another frustrating day in the lab if the cure had already been found. Believe it or not, cancer researchers do not just sit around all day, mixing colourful liquids in tubes and recording the number of bubbles produced.

What is the point of cancer research then?

Cancer research is important in developing more efficient prognostic and diagnostic tools and better-targeted treatments. The sooner a tumour is detected, the earlier it can be treated and prevented from developing into something which will have no return or even metastasising. Also, better-targeted treatments means that they will be more effective at dealing and killing the cancer cells but harming as less as possible of the “good” cells still dominating in our bodies and right next to the cancerous ones. Cancer patients often suffer from chemotherapy, since the drugs are causing harmful effects to their normal, good cells as well. Let us go back at the example of the uncontrollable party that is taking place in your flat; the police are doing their best to get all the noisy ones out of the building but picking them one by one, without hurting the “innocent” ones or disturbing your neighbours, is impossible. Some good ones will go down with them. Nuking the whole building is not an option either! Scientists are the police in this scenario, trying to find out how to better identify the cancerous cells, how to isolate and exploit their weaknesses so that only them go down; helping cancer patients to a longer life and a less painful experience.

Have cancer incidences increased in the last years?

This is debated in the scientific community. Cancer has certainly been always around, since DNA and cells have always been around. Cancer was first recorded in 3000 BC in ancient Egypt and was studied in ancient Greece, given also its name at the time (cancer = carcinos in Greek, which means “crab”). Whether incidences have increased though in the last few years or not, it is not clearly defined yet. First of all, life expectancy has risen. Medicine has prolonged our lives and nowadays, a lot of people live to their 80s and 90s. A few centuries ago, 50 would be considered “old”. Therefore, a longer a person lives, the more chances they have of developing cancer. If x incidences of cancer patients above 70 years old were recorded in the last 10 years, a small percentage would have been recorded 3 centuries ago simply because not that many people would have lived to that age. Also, prognosis and diagnosis of cancer have improved tremendously. Not all cancer cases would have been diagnosed and recorded 80-100 years ago, whereas nowadays hardly any go undetected.

Lifestyle is most certainly affecting though. A healthy lifestyle would contribute to prevention of some cancers, to some extent. A person’s psychology is said to greatly contribute to the treatment of cancer as well – like it would with any other disease. Quite often though, we hear that “substance A” has been found to help treat cancer and “substance A” is actually present in pineapples. Do we stuff our faces with pineapples though and rest assured that we will never develop cancer? No, the answer is not as simple as that. Other questions need to be raised, such as “in what form does that substance exist in pineapple?” and “does the pineapple have any harmful effects?” Bottom line I would say: Everything in moderation. Including the seemingly good things.