Why can’t you just cut off cancer cells?

1.23K views

I know there’s a reason, but I don’t know what it is.

In: Biology

41 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

So, a little bit of background. You know how when you get a cut, the cells duplicate more than normal, trying to cover the wound? That’s because cells are constantly talking to each other, asking if they’re there. When they get cut-off from their neighbors, they get worried, and reach out, growing more to bridge the gap, until they hear from their neighbors. They don’t worry too much about how *well* they’re building, because they need to reestablish contact *now,* which is how we get scar tissue, but they *do* keep building until they hear back “yeah, we’re here, and we’ve got this *covered.*”

Cancers, more or less, are when cells go deaf and *can’t* hear the signals from adjacent cells that they’re there. They just keep growing and growing, all the while listening for the “Yo, we’re good” signal.

…but they’re deaf, and making *more* deaf cells, none of which will never *be able* to hear that signal.

So, the problem is that in order to excise cancerous cells, you need to get *each and every* cell that has gone deaf. If you miss *even one,* all you’ve done is delay the inevitable.

And that’s what a Biopsy is, where they take the cells and see if *all* of the ones on the border (and, logically, all the ones they left behind) can hear. If so, you’re good. Otherwise, they have to try again.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can, and surgeons frequently do, but there’s no guarantee it will remove the underlying cause.

ETA: excising tumors is effectively first aid for cancer.

Anonymous 0 Comments

That’s what they do. But you might be at a stage where they would need to cut more than what is needed for the body to continue breathing. :/

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are some cancers you can just cut out and not do chemotherapy. Thyroid cancer is one of the few where you can make full recovery without additional treatments after surgery.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Something missing from the picture is that we all have cancer cells in our body. They sometimes get created and are immediately killed, or they hang out somewhere without multiplying, or they make a tiny tumor somewhere not noticable. So all of this is not worth to be called “you have cancer”. One someone suffers from a noticable cancer that needs surgery, then the doctor can assume with higher probability that the same type of cells, or the same weakness that caused them, will do the trick again in the future. So this patient has to stay under observation even after a cancer is surgically removed.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you heard of “Crispr” ?. It’s a medical tool that allows surgeons to cut out microscopic sequences of sick and deformed cells. Crispr is currently going through testing, but I have faith it will change the world by restoring health to many sick people.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Cancer cells don’t die as normal cells do and multiply themselves quick, it’s like zombie attack: you can kill some but the only way to stay safe is to kill them all. If some live they will replicate again. And yes, some of them could be just cut off.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because cancer is profitable in big pharmas eyes if there was a true cure for cancer which there very likely is one there would be no money to be made, the sad truth

Anonymous 0 Comments

I am a blood cancer survivor. There is no way to “cut off” cancerous cells there. All the main blood cancers (lymphomas, leukemias and myelomas) have to be treated systemically. Sometimes there may be surgical reduction of a lymph node or to debulk lymphatic masses, but that is either for biopsy or to alleviate symptoms. It’s never curative with a blood cancer. Also, people are lumping all sorts of drug therapies into a generic “chemo” category. But there are many targeted therapies that do not randomly attack fast-growth cells like the ‘usual’ chemotherapy does. Immunotherapies like CAR-T, Rituxan, etc., are highly targeted and go after very specific cells.

Anonymous 0 Comments

To answer your question we first have to understand what cancer is and how it works. Cancer starts with a single human cell that stops doing its intended job and instead grows and makes more cancer cells very quickly. The way cancer hurts us is by growing so big in a vital organ that the vital organ can’t do its job any longer, and we die from the failure of the vital organ. For example, breasts are very nice, but no one would die from breast cancer if it stayed in the breast. We can live without breasts. Breast cancer kills people because it spreads to places like the liver and lungs and we can’t without those. Now to your question.

You *can* cut out cancer cells. The problem is that if you miss even one cell it just starts the process all over again, which is why we almost always give chemo/immunotherapy or radiation or both in addition to the surgery, just to increase the chances of killing any stray cells left behind by the surgery.