Unit 4 video script What is cancer, anyway?

Speaking: For most of my life, I only had a very broad understanding of cancer. I mean, we all know its a disease. I knew that it often shows up in tumors on the body, from cells that somehow grow uncontrollably. *animated drawings* I was also aware of chemotherapy, where drugs are used to treat cancer. I knew that chemotherapy is grueling, and has a bunch of negative side effects. Nausea Loss of hair Suppressed immune system Fatigue

And I knew that cancer kills thousands of people each year. Its a serious disease with deadly consequences. But It wasnt until recently that I finally asked myself: What exactly is cancer? I took the liberty to Google this question, where I came across this definition by the National Cancer Institute: A term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues. And from that little sentence, I learned two things that totally changed my whole perspective on cancer. 1. Cancer refers to several diseases. I always thought cancer was one thing. In the media, its often referred to as such. Cancer always sounded like this one giant monster disease, spreading across the world in a deadly pandemic. Its not. Cancer is actually a broad term for a whole bunch of diseases. There are dozens of different types of cancers that show up in different parts of the body. Glioma (brain)

Leukemia (blood) Gastric (stomach) Osteosarcoma (bone)

Chondrosarcoma (Also bone) Ewing sarcoma (again, bone)

To make things more complicated, each cancer works differently. Theyre caused by various factors and have different molecular mechanisms. So if cancer is just a whole bunch of different diseases, how are all these cancers related? 2. Cancerous cells are abnormal cells that divide without control. To understand how cancer cells are abnormal, we first have to know what a normal cell is like. Cells divide through a process known as mitosis, where they replicate their DNA and divide into two. Normal cells dont divide infinitely, though. Normal body cells stop dividing after a certain number of generations (usually around 50 or 60 times), where the cells will then commit apoptosiscell suicide. This process is called senescence! Normal cells are also able to regulate how often they divide. Cells send signals to each other as they duplicate. Theyll slow down if it gets too crowded, and speed up if more cells are needed! Cancer cells do not do this. Cancer cells dont obey senescence. They are, in a sense, immortal. They completely ignore signals urging them to commit suicide, allowing them to keep growing. For example, p53 is a protein that promotes cell apoptosis. When a gene has a mutation for the p53 gene, and the p53 protein fails, cells can continually divide without control. And then: cancer! No matter how crowded it gets, cancer cells will keep dividing over and over and over again. If they have enough nutrients, theyll keep dividing forever. This is what causes those dangerous tumors! And that, generally speaking, is how cancers are alike.

So why havent we found a cure yet? We always hear all this talk about the cure for cancer. But the problem is that cancer cant be solved with a single treatment, since they all work differently in very complex ways. For example: (all of this will be said very quickly, simply to emphasize that cancer is very complex): Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (which affects the endocrine system) is caused by the inherited mutation of the RET gene, one that causes the upregulation of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) which in turn promotes cell growth and cancer. (cancer caused by heredity) Heptatitis B viral protein X increases the level of lncRNA HULC in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, which in turn downregulates p18, a tumor-suppressor gene. (cancer caused by viruses) The most common form of cancer, basal-cell carcinoma, is usually caused by sunlight. Ultraviolet rays from the sun cause random genetic mutations in the cell, mutations that often lead to malignant growth. Which is why people who tan are more likely to develop skin cancer. (cancer caused by the environment) Whew. At the moment, we have things like chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery as the standard for cancer treatment. However, these treatments are very generalized. Chemo and radiation, in particular, are designed to kill any rapidly dividing cell in the body. While this includes cancer cells, this also includes hair cells, blood cells, and stomach cells, which is why we get side effects like hair loss, suppressed immune system, and nausea. And because were simply killing the cells by brute forcenot attacking them at the root of the causethe cancer cells will often come back to grow again. A true cure would have to be tailored to the specific type of cancer. This means that each cancer would need its own specialized research, uncovering the causes and mechanisms of the disease. Even if we do that, treatment can still be tricky. Each patient responds differently to cancer therapy. Each case is different. Sometimes, a single tumor can contain multiple forms of cancer.

There is no magic bullet that will cure cancer.

Even so, we are learning more about cancer every day. As we learn more about how these cancers work, we can also learn how to fight it. New cancer drugs and therapies are constantly being tested and released to the public. And cancer awareness is spreading. Its spread to you, just from you watching this video. When you understand a little more about how cancer works, you can also understand how to prevent it. Smoking Tanning Vaccines Healthy lifestyle

So I hope that, with this video, youre at least a little closer to understanding exactly what cancer is. If you want to know more, Ive included links to the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, and the American Institute for Cancer Research in the description below. Thanks for watching! http://www.cancer.org/ http://www.cancer.gov/ http://www.aicr.org/

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