Cancer+JO

Elizabeth Edwards:57 year old, presidential candidates wife. (still alive and looking for tomorrows medicine) Tony Snow: 51 year old press secretary (snow has not made it through his cancer. and died july 2008) both diagnosed with cancer.
 * CANCER**
 * 1. The article begins by mentioning two important people with cancer. Who is Elizabeth Edwards? Who is Tony Snow? (This article was written 03/07/07. As a part of this question find out what has happened in the year and a half since this article was written with respect to the cancer of Ms. Edwards and Mr. Snow. Include a link to your sources.)**

the transference of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces
 * 2. What is a metastatic cancer cell?**

Because they feed off of and cut off resources and nutrients to other organs and cells. clogging traffic.
 * 3. Why does the author call cancer cells barbarians and cannibals?**

genetic mutations and chromosomal aberrations that prompt cells to think they are being stimulated by growth hormones when they are not; that shore up the tips of chromosomes and so immortalize cells that otherwise would be slated to die
 * 4. What do we know about the events that transform a normal cell to a cancer cell?**

metastasis — which is Greek for “beyond static” — is a matter of cells on the move and ultimately must be studied in vivo
 * 5. Why is harder to study metastatic cancer cells?**

mica carrying tumors of a billion cells each. visible metastatic can be counted on one hand; though million of cancer cells escaped from the tumor.
 * 6. How many cells do primary tumors shed each day (in a rodent)? Yet how many metastatic tumors do these rodents have?**

malignant cells must reinvent themselves as parasites: slim down to almost bacterial dimensions -or- attracting an entourage of platelets and red blood cells to their surface "escorts"
 * 7. Describe two ways metastatic cells can travel through the body avoiding detection from our immune system.**

wound sites: easy to get a "foothold" or "toe in" ... even the location of removed teeth.
 * 8. Where is the first site (oasis for the cancer cell) that metastasis generally occurs? Why? Why is it an oasis? (What is an oasis?)**

Evidence suggests that micrometastases will not attain macro dimensions unless, among other things, they adapt to their new surroundings and interact with their neighbors enough to exploit them
 * 9. What is a dormant micrometastasis? Why are they relevant to human health?**

breast to bone. calcium and iron in breast milk easily transfers to bone. melanoma to brain: neural tissue and the melanocytes that give rise to melanoma both arise from the same class of cells during gestation
 * 10. What evidence do we have that metastasis occurs in organs that are similar to the organ of the primary tumor? Give two examples.**


 * 11. Find a current (published in last 2 months) news article (from a national source) about cancer. Post a link to the article and write a 75-100 word summary.**