However, with my rather peculiar way of thinking, the above thought led me to think of another very real war, one that has existed for as long a time as we have--this is none other than the gruesome war on disease.
We often neglect to adequately appreciate the scientists, physicians, and persons whose bodies are reluctantly the host to these dreadful illnesses. They are inarguably the most courageous of all.
Herein, I will shed light light on the darkness of cancer. And speak to the promising research of stem cells, which may be microscopic, but are nonetheless huge due their potential to revolutionize medicine.
MORTALITY:
This year alone, more than 1.4 million people have battled cancer to their last literal breath. Too add to the gloom, the World Health Organization has projected that an estimated 9 million people will perish in 2015, due to this pathological beast.
HOW DOES CANCER PROVE LETHAL?:
Malignant growth not only compromises the health of the particular organ that it parasitises, but it could metastasize (spread to other areas of the body). Just as we require sustenance to power our biological machines, each cell of our body independently has the same taste for nutrients. And any amount of nutrients requisite to facilitate angiogenesis is utterly gluttonous; these antagonistic cells deserve to feed on no one.
Because cancer cells cannot grow very large alone, they rob nearby blood vessels. They do so by delivering signals that cause the neighbouring vessels to sprout toward them, thereby establishing a direct source of nourishment.
If said cells were on a vital organ, it should be conceivable how such a stealing of its nutrients could jeopardize the organ. Moreover, as cancerous tumours grow, they could physically obstruct necessary processes by their size alone. Visualise cancer in the digestive system, for example. If it is largely the function of the digestive system to allow the body to absorb nutrients, and there's a malignant growth in part of the intestine, it's quite clear how this could be life threatening. If one cannot properly absorb sustenance, then life would be difficult to sustain.
MODERN SCIENCE:
While I am a huge advocate of antioxidants and healthy eating habits (irrespective of my fat kid snacks), which are too proven to lessen to a degree, one's chances at cancer--via round house kicking free radicals--recent research have taken it medically to another level. This is partly through the study of stem cells.
Firstly, what are these stem cell thingamajigs I speak of? Stem cells are cells (duh) that haven't specialised to form a specific tissue of the body--differentiated cells.
There are a few select methods of obtaining these undifferentiated cells: Through a process, namely pheresis, stem cells can be extracted from the blood of a donor. --This isn't quite hemophobe friendly; my condolences. Another rather invasive method of extraction is harvesting. This involves the drilling into bone to extract the cellular nectar. And then there's the god forbidden embryonic stem cells. As some of you may know, this is the most controversial of the methods of extraction that are practiced. It poses ethical questions that are difficult to reach agreement on. The Catholic Church are known for their strong opposition to embryonic stem cell research, and according to whom you speak with, they are opposed to stem cell research as a whole.
STEM CELLS FIGHTING CANCER!!
In Japan, researchers have brilliantly demonstrated that it is indeed possible to make cancer specific immune system cells. These disease fighting cells were engineered from induced pluripotent stem cells. Generally these sort of cells originate from an adult somatic cell--a non-pluripotent cell. It might also be worth it to add that induced pluripotent cells are artificially derived, hence the "induced"?
THE BRAINS:
Shinya Yamanaka, and British scientist John B. Gurdon, were awarded the 2012 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, for discovering that they can reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells.
Researchers were able to create cancer-specific T lymphocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells. This is bad news (FoxNews) for some cancer.
Yamanaka found that with utilising four pieces of DNA--known now as Yamanaka factors--adult skin cells could be induced to revert back to a pluripotent state, in which state they can become any cell in the body! This is medically beautiful.
I hope that we can dramatically reduce the number of tears lost due to mourning the loss of loved ones to cancer world wide. As science grows and tumours progressively shrink, resulting from the progression of science, I have sufficient reason to be optimistic.
-sreehc
Derrick Antonio
No comments:
Post a Comment