angier+questions

> >> 1. fertile ground in a desert where the level of underground water rises to or near ground level, where plants grow and travelers can replenish water supplies > >> 2. a place or period that gives relief from a troubling or chaotic situation > >> Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
 * 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)
 * 2) Elizabeth Edwards is 57 years-old and the wife of John Edwards. The metastatic cancer spread from the breast to the bone, she decided to fight the cancer. she was diagnosed on November 3, 2004. she has fought the cancer and is an active campaigner for womens heath and cancer patients. in November of 2006 Edwards announced that he doctor had recently told her that her cancer "wasnt anything that was going on in her life". during September 2006, she published her book, //Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers,// which is about her fight with breast cancer and the death of her son.
 * 3) Tony Snow is 51 years- old and the press secretary for President Bush. His metastatic cancer went from the colon to the liver, he decided to fight the cancer. he was the third person to work under the title of "press secretary" for President Bush. outside of the white house Snow is a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He has hosted his own radio show called the "Tony Snow Show" which has been nationally recognized. in February 2005 cancer developed in his colon. HE had his colon removed and then went back to work in April 2005. On Friday, march 23, 2007, Snow announced that he would have surgery the next Monday to remove and investigate an abdominal growth.
 * 4) What is a metastatic cancer cell?
 * 5) they are a malignant cellular outpost that proliferate fer from the neoplastic mass that created them.
 * 6) Why does the author call cancer cells barbarians and cannibals?
 * 7) they are barbarians because they have no manners (as if humanizing the cancer cell). they have no sense of whats theirs and what belongs to the cell next to them... they take the nutrients from other cells and invade them constantly. they are called cannibals because they eat the cells next to them (again as if the cancer cell is a human) the cell eats its own species and is therefore a cannibal.
 * 8) What do we know about the events that transform a normal cell to a cancer cell?
 * 9) a cancer cell is a cell that divides without restraint and forms tumors. they come from genetic mutations and chomosomal aberrations that make the cells think that they are stimulated by growth hormones when in reality, they arent. since they are not stimulated by these growth hormones they stifle the safety signals that are meant to keep the cell from dividing and damage the chromosomes and immortalize the cells that would, in other cases, be dead.
 * 10) Why is harder to study metastatic cancer cells?
 * 11) it is harder to study metastatic cancer cells because they are "beyond static"... they are constantly moving and have to be studied in the vivo... in the body.
 * 12) How many cells do primary tumors shed each day (in a rodent)? Yet how many metastatic tumors do these rodents have?
 * 13) there are about a million cancer cells in the tumors that are planted in the rodent, but the metastatic cells that survive can be counted on one hand.
 * 14) Describe two ways metastatic cells can travel through the body avoiding detection from our immune system.
 * 15) The cells reinvent themselves as parasites and some condense down to bacterial dimensions by cutting off unnecessary parts of their cytoplasm. other cells attract a group of platelets and red blood cells which "escprt them through the rapidsinto safe pools within tissues."
 * 16) Where is the first site (oasis for the cancer cell) that metastasis generally occurs? Why? Why is it an oasis? (What is an oasis?)
 * 17) the first site that metastasis generally occurs are wound sites where the platelets are- enabling the cancer cells to attack the site. they feed on the growth hormones. they occur near wounds because the platelets are helpers to these cancer cells and allow them in. it is an oasis because it is a place that provides an underlying layer of fertility for the cell... it has the nutrients that are needed for the cancer cells (an abundant amount of growth hormones). an oasis is... o·a·sis n
 * 1) What is a dormant micrometastasis? Why are they relevant to human health?
 * 2) they are cancer cells that lay in the patientes body but do not cause a fatal relapse of the disease. a patient can hold thousands of these dormant cells.
 * 3) What evidence do we have that metastasis occurs in organs that are similar to the organ of the primary tumor? Give two examples.
 * 4) it is easier to attack organs that are similar because the cancer cells know how and where to attack. breast umors are known to metastasize to bone tissue because these are places where the invasive cells take advantage of their ability to gather calcium ions for breast mils and transfer that to the calcium-rich bones. another example is Malignant melanoma spreads to the brain because of the neural tissue and the melanocytes that create melanoma both come from the came class of cells during gestation.