Cancer

[Kirlian]

Not sure if the right place to post this question but here goes.

 

My Uncle has recently been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and It has just occured to me that of all the people I have known/heard of who have died from Cancer were all diagnosed prior to death, no-one that I have heard of has died and then a post-mortem has concluded Cancer was the cause of death.

 

 

So my question is

 

Do people die from Cancer without it first being diagnosed

 

Thanks in advance

 

Kirlian

[husmusen]

In places without access to first world medicine, all the time.

 

In places with first world medicine, yes but much more rarely.

I know of one case where a tumor eroded the Aorta, that was only discovered post mortem.

 

Cancer ofcourse is not a single disease, it's a cluster and can refer to lots of different diseases.

 

Just like there are different infectious diseases like Typhoid, Flu, Chicken pox , German measels, Ebola. And the only thing these have in common is that you can catch them from other people.

 

You also have different cancers, lung, liver, bowel, prostate.

And the only the have in common is that some of the bodies cells have

gone completely bananas.

 

Lung cancer would be pretty hard to die of without a doctor figuring out what it was. It basically means that the lung is growing wrong, and cells from the lung are/will be moving to other parts of the body and growing there as well.

The lungs start to die and the person can't breathe.

 

Wether you can be cured of it or not depends on what stage it is.

That's something that only your/his doctor can tell you/him.

 

Regards,

Husmusen

[Dark Photon]

it all depends on where you are, but it happens everywhere.

the frequency of such an event depends on your acces to medicine. in most MEDC's this is alot less common than LEDCs

[RyanJ]

Firstly sorry to hear about the news Kirlian.

 

I would just like to add that it also strongly depends on the type of cancer, some remain unnoticed for longer then others and then spring up when its too late. It depends on where and what type of cancer it is just as much as anything else.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[Kirlian]

Thanks for the replies Guys

 

My Uncles spirits are high and he starts on his chemo in 2 weeks

 

does anybody know what causes cancer as I haven't found anything on the net it seems that this mean killing disease has everybody on the hop as to what does cause it

[Immunologist]

Hello Kirlian,

 

Cancers form due to an abnormal growth of cells (from any type of cells). These cells are directed to proliferate all the time when they should not. Most of the time, a mutation of a gene that regulate the growth of cells is the origin of the disregulation.

These mutations can be induced by many factors, like viruses that insert in the genome, exposition to radiations, chemicals (ethidium bromide)... anything that will induce affect DNA and cause an improper repair of the DNA strand.

 

In the lung, the most common cause of cancers is, sadly, cigarette smoke. Among all the stuff in cigarette smoke, there is (if I remember correctly) over hundred cancerigens and 20 (I'm sure of that one) cancerigens that are aiming specially at the lungs.

 

Genetic predispositions are also involved in cancer. By example, if you have a specific allele of a regulatory gene (for cell growth), it can change the odds that this gene's protein work badly.

 

Hope it helps understand!

 

A good reference for cancer:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp

 

For lung:

http://www.lungusa.org

[ecoli]

Melanoma (cancer on the skin) is much easier to catch then some internal cancers, for example.

 

Good luck to your uncle.

[Kirlian]

Am I losing it?

 

I replied to this post before and there was 12 replies, I wonder what has happened to them?????

 

Thanks again for the replies

[Kirlian]

In answer to my last question, YES I am losing it lolol

 

It was another thread that I replied to over in religion and it's not missing all the replies are there

 

I feel such a fool

 

Kirlian

[GeneG83]

My friends father was diagnosed with cancer, it went into remission after tons of chemo but poped up again several years later. He had one of him lungs removed recently but that seems to be the end of it as it has not yet metastasized. Point is that cancer is not necessarily a death sentence...good luck to your uncle.

[scicop]

Hi Kirlian,

 

Sorry to hear about your uncle. Take some relief that the doctors are proceeding with the chemo. That means THERE IS HOPE!

 

My uncle passed on due to lung cancer, however when he was diagnosis it had metastasized to most parts of his body. The doctors told us that chemo was not an option, so you can imagine how my family felt.

 

On the other hand my childhood friend's father was diagnosised with lung cancer 3 years ago. He was treated with chemo and survived it. Today the man can physically kick my Arse (and he has, multiple times).

 

You and your uncle have hope. The docs would not be giving your uncle chemo if they thought it wouldn't work. So hang in there! I'm sure he'll be around to kick your arse quicker than you think.

[SCIGENIUS]

Yes! Cancer Is deadly!

[Shiney]

Hi

i wish your uncle all the best!

 

I have got a question, too.

My uncle died 2 years ago because of Blood Cancer, which spread very quickly. This was due to his fathers genes, i suppose, who also died because of cancer.

Why are there so many types of cancers?

Is it just the place they occur or have they got different symptoms?

 

Thanks in advance

Shiney

[Mokele]

Essentially, cancer is the term for a particular type of cellular malfunction, causing the affected cells to multiply out of control. This can happen to most cells in the body, and because different cells have different properties (speed of reproduction, etc), the resulting cancer can be different.

 

Think of it like a metal part of a car breaking; it's the same sort of thing, but the effects are different based on whether the metal part that breaks is in the transmission or the shocks.

 

Mokele

[Dak]

are there actually histological/cytological differences between the types of cancers? i thought that, with the exeption of leukemia, cancer was essentially a big blob.

 

the effects of the big blob would be different depending on where it was -- a big blob where there should be brain would be worse than a big blob where there should be muscle, for example -- but i thought that it was allways the same big blob

 

?

[husmusen]

Nope, some are highly invase, like strands growing through the tissue.

Others are big lumps. Some look a lot like an omelette in shape and texture.

They can also present as ulcerating. They can grow as cauliflower like necrotising wounds.

 

I'll link some pics at the bottom.

 

Cancers can form from just about any body tissue, they can even be composed of multiple different body tissues. See Teratoma.

 

Each cancer has it's own different way of growing, and IIRC they have just discovered that bowel cancer may be over 50 different kinds of cancer(on the genetics/protein level) which explains why some people go home cured and in other people the chemo rather than killing it almost promotes it.

 

For example Carcinomas derive from epithelial cells.

Sarcomas Connective tissue.

Gliomas Brain tumors basically.

 

And they all grow differantly, even the same cancer will grow different in different people. So you have topology and morphology. Basically fancy words for "where it is" and "what type it is/how it grows."

 

EG, you have melanomas which present as these tine little lesions on the skin, then basically grows straight down and invades everything it can as fast as it can.

 

Then you have lipomas, which are benign, they are basically fat grow slowly and dont spread.

 

They generally spread through the lymph system, I had an interesting patient once who had cancer in his foot of all places and you could actually trace his lymph system by the cancer lumps, Basically each lymph node trapped the cancer cells, which multiplied relentlessly eventually killing the node and escapeing to the next node etc.

 

So if you ever find yourself with lumps on your foot which multiply upwards, try to come in before it hits your knee. It makes our job >Much< easier.

 

Husmusen

 

Further Reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer

 

A slide of tissue level sarcoma.

http://erl.pathology.iupui.edu/C603/GENE298.HTM

An advanced basal cell carcinoma

kaposis Sarcoma

A fungating wound:-

[Mokele]

As a side note, teratomas are the coolest cancer *ever*. A tumor with hair, teeth, even eyes...

[Xavier]

It is said that whilst 10% (very approx) of men over the age of 80 will die of prostate cancer, 90% will die with prostate cancer.

 

This particular cancer varient is ubiquitous but so slow growing that a sufferer will mroe than likely die of something else before the prostate trouble becomes noticable.

 

This was of issue when means of screening the male population for prostate cancer as cervical cancer is screened. The official line on why this screening program has not been started ( in the UK, at least) is that the tests are not yet sufficiently predictive and cost effective but the real reason has more to do with the fact that the treatment would only extend life for a year or so, on average.

 

It has been estimated (though 'guessed' might be a better word) that a typical person has around 10 'precancerous growths' - cells that would have the capacity to become symptomatic if allowed to continue- during their lifetime. They are the sorts of things that get picked in well-person whole body scans and then have to be treated with chemo, surgery etc. even though most of them would be neutralised by the immune system without the patient ever knowing about them.