..from a cancerous one?

Aren't they BOTH uncontrolled multiplying of cells?

I watch these tumor removal operations on Discovery Health Channel, like those tumors that weigh over 100 pounds.

Non-cancerous tumors have been known to kill people also...but not quite in the same way, probably, as cancerous ones do. Non-cancerous ones probably choke off nearby vital organs, where cancerous ones totally destroy the very tissue. My cat had a cnacer of it's liver and it turned it into a mush the vet said.

Anyway, I want to try to better understand cancer. So far, cancer experts have had years and years to test and experiment, and with al the billions of dollars sent their way... and yet, IMO, aren't really any closer to truly solving cancer than ...well, sort of like if we were to throw money at NASA in hopes that they could come up with "time travel".

If I can get a better grasp on what cancer is exactly, why some people get it while others don't (look at how Dana Reeves died of lung cancer and she never smoked...and I know an 83 year old woman who has smoked a pack a day for 65 years and doesn't even cough!!) I might figure out for myself that if there is a chance that this is a solveable problem.

From what I know of it, certain people are more predisposed to getting it because the walls of their cells are weak? And that once it gets a foothold, it is akin to having a small fire get a foothold...which then leads to a full-blown forest fire.

Also, I am not so sure whether I buy into this theory that the "immune system" has any effect on this disease (like food/nutrient gurus want us to believe). I think this disease is beyond the immune system. You'd think that if the immune system were the easy culprit to target, that the proof would lie with everyone who gets colds and flus, or come down with pnemonia, tb, etc. most often would get cancer most often...and I don't think that is the case.

 

(can·cer) (kan¢s[schwa]r) [L. “crab, malignant tumor”] a neoplastic disease the natural course of which is fatal. Cancer cells, unlike benign tumor cells, exhibit the properties of invasion and metastasis and are highly anaplastic. Cancer includes the two broad categories of carcinoma and sarcoma, but in normal usage it is often used synonymously with carcinoma.


That is a quite good definition of cancer. Many of the definitions include "100 or more life threatening diseases". That is part of why cancer has not been cured. It is not one disease but over 100 different diseases.
This definition also contrasts benign to cancerous cells.

With a benign tumor, you do not die directly from the tumor but, as you posted, by complications or damage, from without, of organs or tissue. A cancer actually invades and becomes part of the organ or tissue involved. That is why it is so dangerous as it is not a "defined" mass even when it seems to be. Particles that break off can spread ( or metastisize) and infect other areas. A benign tumor does not do this. These new infections can actually destroy their new host organs. Benign tumors may damage the associated organ but it is generally from things such as restricting blood flow to the organ or restricting other vital actions.

Now you seem to believe some similar thoughts of the medical field as I do. Simply put, the docs have overcome very few illnesses if you actually think about it. Measles, chickenpox, mumps, the common cold, influenza, pnuemonia, all are diseases that have no real cure. More often than not, doctors treat symptoms and assist the human body to heal itself. They have succeeded in preventing the diseases in many cases but if they were to resurface, there is often no cure.

The medical field, with all its knowledge, is still a very crude practice.

Look at some of the current illnesses and injuries:

flesh eating bacteria (necrotizing fasciitis): to "cure" the patient, the affected area is often removed to prevent the spread of the infection. In some cases, their is simply no treatment

staph infections: thousands of deaths each year are attributed to this little bugger and the doctors are basically helpless in attempting to stop it.

HIV/AIDS: we are learning more and more each year about this but actually no closer to actually curing it. We, for the most part, simply delay death due to AIDS. Often the actual cause of death is a cancer that invades due to the (what is that you say about immune systems) lack of an immune system.

the common cold: a viral infection. The medical field has little to no success in preventing and treating viral infections.

There are hundreds of illness that are uncurable: rhumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy (actually a group of ailments), narcolepsy, epilepsy (the only "cure" I have heard of is partial brain removal. pretty crude if you ask me). The list would go on for pages.

From what I have experienced personally and what I have seen, what doctors generally do is either treat symptoms (for life) or remove the offending body part. Very few things are truly cured by what a doctor does, they often merely prolong death long enough for the body to cure itself, if it is able to.

 

There are many factors that must be taken into consideration when it comes to asking "Why Cancer?" Age, exposure to carcinogens, genetic make up, immune system, diet, environment, and viruses, and others. It is not just one factor but a combination of factors that make some people more prone to one or more types of cancer or not at all.

If understanding cancers and the causes and factors involved were simple, we would have already discovered more cures. We do, however, gave a greater understanding of cancers and more realizable and necessary goals to do so than actual time travel.

We are aware that diet plays a role in certain types of cancer in certain people and that diet impacts the immune system as do age, exposure to carcinogens, genetic make up, environment, and viruses. These factors impact individuals differently. It is not known how to accurately alter one's diet to prevent cancer. It is know that certain diet factors seem to have more impact in certain individuals and their immune systems than others. The immune system is not the only factor to be targeted. Cancer is complex and multi-factorial. To try to simplify what has been learned about the causes of cancer and to target any one factor as a cause or prevention is simply impossible.

Colds and flus are caused by viruses, but there has been no link between those viruses and cancer. There have been, however, links between such viruses as cervical cancer and genital warts virus, primary liver cancer and Hepatitus B virus, and T-cell leukemia and T-cell leukemia virus.

Billions of dollars have been spent on cancer research and billions of dollars more will be spent, and we will still not have all the answers. There are, however, many cancer survivors today who are truly grateful for the research that has been done. Those people and their families and friends would certainly not scoff at the billions that has been spent on cancer research. For these survivors the billions spent on research to find the cures that saved their lives is "time travel."

 

Very true .

 

Absolutely the immune system is involved! Cancer is a failure of the immune system. Cancer is caused when cells in the body mutate into something incompatible with the host body. These kinds of cells are created all the time in everyone's body and are destroyed by the immune system. A person only gets cancer when these cells are not destroyed and grow unchecked.

 

I read every word of a the replies and it sounds like you guys are oncologists.

But I singled out this post because it is short, of one subject, and something here doesn't make sense to me.

IF the immune suystem truly is the big factor here, then is there specifically an 'Army' in a healthy immuned system person that targets cancer cells (as opposed to other Marines, Navy, or Air Force immune systems) that target other things, like certain infections?

 

Without going into a long lecture on immunology, yes, there are specific cells that do specific things. It's a little different, though, than this cell fights this invader, and so on. It's more like the body decides how to fight something based on how it encounters it and whether it is fighting something inside or outside a cell. The two major components are the T1 & T2 helper cells, generically called T cells. These are the cells compromised when someone has HIV/AIDS and is why they tend to get diseases that most people fight off without symptoms.

Obviously, this is an oversimplification and the concepts are not completely understood with respect to fighting cancer. A lot of research is going on trying to find ways to get the human immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells, as this would be far superior to the current treatments we have with their often devestating side effects.