Pharmacology 3620 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Monoclonal Antibody, History Of Cancer Chemotherapy, Carcinogenesis
28 Oct 2016
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Describe what cancer is and why it can be a fatal disease. Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer is not just one disease but many different diseases: there are more than 100 different types of cancer. Cancer cells can reach distant parts of the body travelling through blood and lymph vessels. Most cancers are named based on the organ or type of cell in which they originate: e. g. colon cancer begins in the colon. A single transformed cell can give rise to a large tumor. Typi(cid:272)ally, t(cid:449)o ge(cid:374)eti(cid:272) (cid:858)hits(cid:859) (cid:894)(cid:373)utatio(cid:374)s(cid:895) a(cid:396)e (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)ed fo(cid:396) a (cid:374)o(cid:396)(cid:373)al (cid:272)ell to (cid:271)e(cid:272)o(cid:373)e a tumourigenic cancer cell: e. g. one hit on each allele of a gene (i. e. one on each chromosome, one hit on two different genes. Tumours invade the area of healthy cells causing them to die.
