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The Benefits Of Metastatic Cancer

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The National Cancer Institute states that “In 2016, an estimated 1,685,210 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 595,690 people will die from the disease” (“What”). Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, only behind heart diseases, because of this cancer is one of the most researched diseases, and is constantly making progress in prevention and control. Despite these things cancer will not be cured by 2050, but it will be easier to treat and control. Also it will be nearly impossible to spread a cure and capable doctors to third world countries in the next thirty four years. To cure cancer it must be completely understood by those who are researching it. The National Cancer Institute defines …show more content…

A tumor is a build up of old or damaged cells that have not been removed from the body. Cancer cells are able to build up through mutations allowing them to ignore signals to stop dividing or to not enter the process of apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. A cancerous tumor is malignant, meaning that it can spread to nearby tissue. Some tumors can travel through the body through blood or the lymph system, cancers that do this are called metastatic. Metastatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, and most treatment is either to prolong or relive some of the symptoms. Another type of tumor is benign, meaning that it cannot spread to nearby tissue, which is not cancerous, but can be life threatening if it is in a vital area such as the brain or heart. Cancer can be caused by various things, one of which being genetics inherited from parents. It also can arise during someone’s lifetime, an example of this would be smoking or radiation. Cancer cells are constantly mutating, and cells in the same tumor can be very different. This is why it is so hard to get rid of cancer, because researchers would have to find a common …show more content…

Many people believe that the hardest part of curing cancer would be getting the cure to impoverished regions of the world. Ronald DePinho, president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, states that “the largest obstacle is the disparity in access in areas of the world where there is a “disparity gap” in access and quality care” (Baral). Another problem now is price, but that is declining as technology is improving. Another problem is that genome sequences are near impossible to read with the technology available now. The sequences will be of minimal use to doctors until it is fully understood. Once genome sequences are fully understood medicine can be made personalized to every patient. These personalized medicines will be able to prevent certain types of cancers that could likely arise due to a person’s genetics or lifestyle. An example of personalized medicine would be for those with squamous cell carcinoma which includes most skin cancers. It would target a gene that is “in SCC tumor cells and, as it turns out, provides the signal for cells to stop multiplying. That's huge news for the fight against skin cancer, as well as other varieties of SCC that occur elsewhere in places like the head and neck. Knowing what they now know, researchers should be able to target treatments at that missing signal that could prevent--or at least halt--the spread of SCC”

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