Re: I'm two for two!!!!


Mayor of R'lyeh wrote:
On 4 Feb 2006 15:13:20 -0800, "Dave Fritzinger" <dfritzin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
chose to bless us with the following wisdom:

[snip]
And the cancer rate now is higher than it was in the 50's. If the
supposed War On Cancer were a serious effort that wouldn't be.

Mayor, from your post, I don't think you understand what cancer is,
since you seem to be talking about it as if it were an infectuous
disease. Cancer is nothing more, and nothing less, than the
uncontrolled growth of cells, and the causes of cancer have everything
to do with the mechanism that controls cell growth and cell death. This
isn't simple stuff, and involves changes in gene structure, expression,
protein modification, etc. Because, as people get older, they are more
likely to have changes in gene expression, etc. caused by somatic cell
mutations (for example, the knocking out of genes that recognize mutant
genes or broken chromosomes), they are more likely to devolop cancer,
which is a disease of old age. After all, I have read that something
like 95% of all men who live to their 80s develop prostate cancer. Now,
since cancer is basically a result of abherrent cell growth, preventing
it is difficult. We have made progress in discovering some of the
causes of certain cancers (e.g. too much sun exposure causing skin
cancer and smoking causing lung cancer), and are trying to get people
to change behavior to minimize their risks. Other cancers can be caused
by other environmental factors, such as diet, exposure to radiation,
and even interactions between diet and gene expression. Again, this is
being studied, and scientists are looking for ways of modifying
behavior to lower people's chances of developing these cancers. But,
since cancer is so closely tied up with the basic mechanisms of cell
replication, survival and death, preventing cancer is not likely. You
should also know that more and more medicines are being developed to
cure certain cancers, and as we learn more about the cellular
machinery, it will be possible to discover ways of detecting cancers
when they are small, or destroying the cancerous cells. That is where
the major hope lies, in my opinion.

I hope you understand, at least a little bit more, what our
understanding of cancer is, and some of the difficulties in fighting
the disease(s).
--
Dave Fritzinger
Honolulu, HI

.

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