May 11, 2023 10:20:00

How are cancer cells processed in the body?

The most common cause of death is 'cancer', but a fierce battle is waged inside the body to prevent cancer. Scientific YouTube channel Kurzgesagt has released a movie about what it is like.

Your Body Killed Cancer 5 Minutes Ago-YouTube


In our bodies, the immune system is silently killing cancer all the time.

Cancer is

an abnormal mass of cells that develops due to genetic damage and whose growth cannot be controlled. And they can emerge from all kinds of cells in the body.

Resources and space in the body are finite. Cancer robs you of resources and the space you live in to survive. In the process, they may destroy organs that were once part of them.

But ``cancer cells are not evil, even though they are harmful,'' Kurzgesagt explains. Cells are, so to speak, ``protein robots'' and they only follow programming, but that programming has been corrupted.

The DNA packed in the nucleus of the cell is made up of genes, which are the blueprints for proteins.

A gene is copied and sent to the ribosome to make a protein.

DNA is

damaged and mutated tens of thousands of times every day. Many of the mutations are either fixed quickly or don't matter.

However, if you copy it over and over again, the damage will accumulate. Also, if a new error occurs, it will be carried over to subsequent copies.

Factors that cause DNA damage include smoking, drinking alcohol, obesity, asbestos, sunburn, and viral infections. However, if you live simply for a long time, your DNA will be damaged.

There are three mutations that are important for cancer development.

One is the tumor suppressor gene (TSG) . TSGs have the ability to detect and repair DNA breaks, but when TSGs are damaged, cells forget how to repair them.

The second is

cancer gene mutations. When in the mother's body, cells undergo rapid cell division to grow from one cell to trillions in a matter of months. This rapid growth switch turns off when the number is sufficient, but when the oncogene is damaged, the growth switch basically turns on.

The third is

programmed cell death , called apoptosis . Many cells are constantly being replaced, and when they are severely damaged, they die by themselves. However, when the power of this programmed cell death is lost and the growth switch is turned on, they change into young cancer cells. Cancer cells are weak and easy to kill in the early stages, but as they continue to mutate, they learn defensive methods and become a real threat.

Cells always have a sample of their own proteins to display using

MHC class I molecules . There are also libraries of proteins that are dangerous and should not be made, and when T cells of the immune system see a sample of a particular protein on display, they immediately kill it.

If cancer cells mutate and stop producing MHC class I molecules, they will not be able to recognize the proteins that they produced, so they will not be able to be identified by T cells, but in that case natural killer cells will do their job. Natural killer cells check for the presence of MHC class I molecules, and if not, determine that they are hiding something and kill the cells.

In other words, almost all young cancer cells in the body are killed by the immune system. Even so, we still get cancer because cancer cells can mutate more and fight back better.

Kurzgesagt describes the fight against cancer as an 'arms race' and concludes that humanity will eventually wipe out cancer as many treatments are beginning to show promise.