• Question: what happens inside your body when you have a sickness such as lung cancer?

    Asked by 356genp37 to Remsha, Oliver, Lisa, Kieran, Fiana, David on 7 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Kieran

      Kieran answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      I am not a cancer researcher but at the basic level cancer is essentially uncontrolled cell division. So lots of cell damage (say from smoking or disease) can lead to a build up of errors in genes which produce proof-reading proteins.These guardians essentially make sure that cell division occurs without errors. With cancer, these checks break down and cell division gets out of control. Ultimately, the cells break down and release toxins which causes disease unless an intervention occurs. Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Remsha Afzal

      Remsha Afzal answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      I say Lisa will be able to answer this question best as she works on breast cancer haha. But Like Kieran said, cancer cells basically are cells that have lost their ability to put a brake on their growth cycle. The cells in our bodies all have specific jobs. Normal cells divide in a very controlled and precise way. Once they get old, worn out or damaged, they die. Cancer is when the cells don’t respond to anything of the sort and just start to grow out of control. They keep growing and making new cells. They take up places meant to be occupied by normal cells. This obviously causes problems in the part of the body where they are.
      But more dangerously, they can also spread to other body parts. Like cancer cells in the lung can spread to the bones and grow there. This is called metastasis (ma-TAS-tuh-sis).

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