Cancer+Article+Questions+-+Rachel

Questions you should answer about the article (You may need to do some research outside the article.) You should make a unique wiki page with these questions, it is OK to copy and paste the questions into your wiki. BUT YOUR ANSWERS MUST BE YOUR OWN. 1. The article begins by mentioning two important people with cancer. Who is Elizabeth Edwards? Who is Tony Snow? (Include their politcal party, job, and current health status-this article was written in April-your answer should have more than what you can find in the article) Elizabeth Edwards is democratic presidential nominee John Edwards' wife. She recently announced that her treated breast cancer has returned and spread into her bones. Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary for republican President George W. Bush, also recently announced that his treated colon cancer had resurfaced spreading into his liver. 2. What is a metastatic cancer cell? A metastatic cancer cell takes all the nutrients from the organ it is inhabiting, withholding air, sugar, and salt from it. Then after the cells block the conduits they begin to prey on surrounding cells and organs, thus spreading the cancerous cells throughout entire portions of the body. 3. Why does the author call cancer cells barbarians and cannibals? Because they prey on other cells and have no restraint against what or when they attack. 4. What do we know about the events that transform a normal cell to a cancer cell? Either through genetic mutations or chromosomal aberrations a normal cell transforms into a cancer cell which keeps on dividing and does not respond to PDC. 5. Why is harder to study metastatic cancer cells? It is harder to study metastatic cancer cells because in order to understand the process by which they move they must be studied while in the body and moving. 6. How many cells do primary tumors shed each day (in a rodent)? Yet how many metastatic tumors do these rodents have? In a rodent a primary tumor carries about a billion cells each, shedding about a million cancer cells. But metastatic tumors formed are so little in number they "maybe counted on the fingers of one hand." 7. Describe two ways metastatic cells can travel through the body avoiding detection from our immune system. One way metastatic cells travel through the body avoiding detection is by down sizing themselves so much they have the same dimensions of a bacteria. While other cells bond with platelets and red blood cells so they can traveling through tissues without detection. 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?) The first site that metastasis generally occur around wound sites where the platelets stick, such as in the dental extractions of a person's body. It is an oasis because the cancer cells can feed on the growth hormones and other aspects of the wound. 9. What is a dormant micrometastasis? Why are they relevant to human health? Cancer cells that the body harbors but are inactive and do not effect the body or cause a relapse. These dormant micrometastasis cells are relevent to human health because if they do assimilate to their dormant organ locations and begin to feed upon those cells they will reinact their initial destructive path. 10. What evidence do we have that metastasis occurs in organs that are similar to the organ of the primary tumor? Give two examples. In the case of Ms. Edwards it is not uncommon for her breast cancer to have metastasized to the bone because bone tissue creates calcium to generate breast milk. While melanoma spreads to the brain through tissue and melanocytes which create melanoma.