if cancer is basically a clump of cells that dont want to die, why/how do things like cigarettes, asbestos, and the literal sun trigger it?
In: Biology
I worked as a software developer for my best friend while he was doing his PhD studies at UT Southwestern for Nuclear Physics. His grant was on breast cancer research. His research was on cataloging various types of cancer, particularly on the breast tissue and then see if we could find alternate ways of treatment, including of course radiation therapy.
Our test subjects were various lab animals, for the most part lab rats.
Anyway, after 3 years working close to him in his research I developed a conclusion that seems to have some fundament on it.
Imagine you have a copy machine, it is of the best quality possible, makes as precise copies as you can imagine. You are asked to make copies with a caveat. You can never make copies using the same original. In fact, your copy has to be made from the latest copy, and the next copy from the latest copy and so on.
Lets call your original copy the “stem copy” and you will only get to use it once.
The first few copies look identical. There is no deviation from the original, but as you keep on making copies, small imperfections appear. Some dust got on the glass, and that made it to the copy, you cleaned the glass, but since you cant make a copy out of the original, all subsequent copies will have that little piece of lint or spec of dust that made it to the glass.
Then the paper shifts just so, so now the copy is shifted and with a spec of dust.
At some point the copies definitely look different from the original so you start shredding them.
Cancer is like this, our body cells are constantly regenerating due to various processes. In a normal lifecycle this is not a problem, but if tissue or an organ or anything has to be constantly regenerated due to an illness, the body will eventually start making bad copies and the own body defenses will start attacking the bad copies because now they look like foreign agents, like disease.
Asbestos is a good example. Asbestos fibers get incrusted deep into the lung tissue, the body tries to remove it but it cant. Minuscule damage is done to the tissue that the body is constantly trying to repair… until it makes a mistake.
The common denominator seems to be a wound that has to be constantly healed. Like cancer of the skin… overexposure to the sun… do this enough times and you get a melanoma.
Drinking for the liber, tobacco on the lungs and so on.
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