Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases and there are more than 200 clinically recognised types, although every cancer is unique. In all types, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. According to Cancer Research UK 1 in 2 people in the UK will get cancer in their lifetime.
Tumour Cell
Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.
When cancer develops, however, this orderly process breaks down. As cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumours. Many cancers form solid tumours, but cancers of the blood, such as leukemias, generally do not form solid tumours.
Cancerous tumours are malignant, which means they can spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. In addition, as these tumours grow, some cancer cells can break off and travel to distant places in the body through the blood or the lymph system and form new tumours far from the original tumour.
When a tumour successfully spreads to other parts of the body and grows, invading and destroying other healthy tissues, it is said to have metastasised. This process itself is called metastasis, and the result is a serious condition that is very difficult to treat.
Unlike malignant tumours, benign tumours do not spread into, or invade, nearby tissues. Benign tumours can sometimes be quite large, however. When removed, they usually don’t grow back, whereas malignant tumours sometimes do. Unlike most benign tumours elsewhere in the body, benign brain tumours can be life threatening.
Cancer is a genetic disease – that is, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Most cancers start as a result of errors that occur as cells divide or because of damage to DNA caused by certain environmental exposures. Cancer-causing environmental exposures include substances, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke, and radiation, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun. More rarely, cancers start due to inherited faulty genes passed down in families.
T Cell
There are numerous treatments for cancer. The aim of any treatment is to remove cancerous cells to try to ensure the cancer doesn’t return. This can be challenging because even if just one cancerous cell remains after treatment, it has the potential to create a new tumour.
- Surgery
- Chemotherapy
- Radiotherapy
- Hormone therapy
- Biological therapy
Body Scan
When used to treat cancer, surgery is a procedure in which a surgeon physically removes cancer-affected tissue from your body. Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that utilizes drugs in order to kill cancer cells whereas radiation therapy uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink any tumors. Hormone therapy is a treatment that slows or stops the growth of breast and prostate cancers that use hormones to grow. Biological therapies are treatments that act on processes in cells. They may stop cancer cells from dividing and growing, seek out cancer cells and kill them and encourage the immune system to attack cancer cells. For more in-depth information on the treatment of cancer, we recommend you visit the National Cancer Institute.
Vaccines are a type of biological therapy. Most people think of a vaccine as something that can help to protect us from infection and the diseases it can cause. But they can also be used to treat and prevent some types of cancer. Research in this area is at an early stage and vaccines are mainly available as part of clinical trials.
Cancer Vaccine Trials
- Antigen vaccines
- Whole cell vaccines
- Dendritic cell vaccines
- DNA vaccines
These above names relate to the way the vaccines are made or how they work. There is a very informative podcast from ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) on understanding Cancer Vaccines detailing how they are currently being trialed.
