virus), HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)
In general then, it is this repetitive irritation to body organs or parts that directly affects the DNA of cells causing the permanent changes that pass to future generations in the form of an abnormal growth (malignant tumors—cancer).
Three quick examples:
1.Cigarettes chronically irritate the trachea, bronchial tubes, lungs, kidneys, urinary bladder, and pancreas.
2.Barbequing meat at high temperature causes the formation of heterocyclic amines considered carcinogenic (cancer promoting).
3.Alcohol excess incriminated in cancer of the digestive tract, breast, liver.
It has been estimated that if people did not put those three things in their mouths, 75 percent of all cancers would never start. Think what that would do to mitigate our healthcare crisis.
Ordinarily, amongst other functions, our immune system is geared to prevent the formation of cancer. The immune system consists of a collaborative mechanism that protects us from disease by utilizing a sophisticated team of specialized organs, and cells circulating throughout the body that differentiate self from non-self. This ability is due to the fact that all body cells carry distinctive molecules (epitopes) on their surfaces that identify it as self. Immune cells, recognizing this self-marker, coexist peacefully in a state known as self-tolerance. On the other hand, altered or foreign cells or organisms that do not carry this self-marker, such as cancer cells, will find themselves subjected to an all-out vigorous assault by the immune system, the principle actors of which are white blood cells known as lymphocytes that recognize these damaged cells as foreign and destroys them before the cells can divide and perpetuate themselves. However, some cells may escape this surveillance system resulting in a cancer that could eventually kill its host.
Interestingly, this basic structural etiology of cancer has been known only for the last sixty years when Watson of the United States and Crick of England worked out the helical structure of the DNA molecule and won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Progress slowly evolved in understanding cancer from this point on.
Cancer then, basic to our very being, involves life at its origin; cell growth gone awry. And as it takes this turn, mankind struggles to understand a disease involving the very basic physiological underpinning of life itself; God’s secret. Is it any wonder why the task has been so difficult? Cancer remains the number two cause of death, second only to heart disease. Our task, in the future, remains to tame these twin killers; a daunting task as cancer kills 1,500 people per day, or about one-half million per year.
Although cancer can occur at any age from infancy on, it is basically a disease of the elderly; over 77 percent of cancers occurring from age 55 on. One out of every four deaths in the United States occurs from cancer. In a lifetime, 50 percent of men and 33 percent of women will develop cancer. In men, the three leading causes of cancer are prostate, lung and colorectal cancer; in Caucasian women, the leading causes of cancer are breast, lung and colorectal cancer. The most common cancer in children ages 14 and younger are the leukemias, and only five percent of cancers are hereditary.
Statistics for cancer survival have improved over the years and the five-year survival rate for all cancers is 86 percent.
CHAPTER 2
Classifications
Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
Jules Henri Poincare
1854-1912
When physicians discuss a cancer diagnosis with patients, they will describe the cancer in reference to its location: stomach cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer etc. This is simple to understand and clarifies the issue as to diagnosis and location.
Another method of describing cancer is by microscopic evaluation of the cancer itself. Histology is the section of biology that deals with the microscopic structure of organic tissues. On this basis, microscopically, cancer can be divided into five divisions based upon the histological picture and the portion of the microscopic structure that the cancer has originated from.
There are five divisions with this method:
1.A carcinoma is a cancer that arises in skin or in tissues lining internal organs such as the stomach, intestines, lungs, urinary bladder. Under this heading, there are various histological types based upon the microscopic picture including:
•Adenocarcinoma (adeno means gland) refers to a cancer arising in the glandular elements of the lining
•Squamous cell carcinoma refers to cancers arising from squamous cells, the main cell type of skin and the lining of the gastrointestinal track, lungs, urinary bladder, prostate, and uterine cervix
•Adenosquamous carcinoma refers to a combination of both types of cellular elements
•Carcinomas with either small or large cells
•Anaplastic carcinoma histologically represents the greatest disturbance of cell growth, making it difficult to distinguish squamous or glandular features
Carcinomas are most frequently found in the lung, breast, colon, rectum, prostate, and pancreas. They represent about 80 to 90 percent of all cancers.
2.A sarcoma is a type of cancer growing from connective tissue such as found in bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, and blood vessels. Connective tissue, as the name implies, “connects.” It serves a connecting function by binding other tissues. Connective tissue comes in a number of types:
•Loose connective tissue holds organs in place. There are three types:
1.Collagenous fibers made of collagen, a protein found throughout our bodies that binds and supports other tissues.
2.Elastic fibers. As the name implies they are stretchable: they can stretch and recoil.
3.Reticular fibers join connective tissue to other tissues.
•Fibrous connective tissue: found in ligaments and tendons.
•Specialized connective tissue
1.Adipose tissue stores fat
2.Cartilage: found in our joints, nose, ears, and trachea
3.Bone contains calcium giving bone its firm hardness
4.Fortunately, sarcomas are quite rare representing one percent of the 1.5 million new cancer cases each year. They are very difficult to treat.
3.Leukemia is cancer arising in the blood forming tissue (bone marrow), which prevents the bone marrow from producing normal red blood cells, normal white blood cells and normal platelets. Instead, the bone marrow produces cancerous blood cells that leave the bone marrow and circulate in the blood vessels throughout the body.
4.Brain and spinal cord cancers are made up of neurological tissue.
5.Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma are cancers that arise in the cells of or the lymph glands of the immune system. Lymphomas occur in two varieties: Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Myelomas grow in the plasma cells of the bone marrow, sometimes
