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The Formation of Tumours

You can click here for a selection of images of “neoplasia” – the formation of tumours – from the Mercer University School of Medicine, University of Utah. There are both microscopic and macro images and every image is explained. When you click on the highlighted parts in the text, the relevant parts in the images are marked with arrows.

Cancer Cells Don’t Die

This is a microscopic image of breast cancer. The havoc that is wreaked by the cancer is obvious. The yellow cells are normal cells, some of which are in the process of  “apoptosis” – or programmed cell death.

A normal cell is supposed to live a certain period of time, in which it can divide and multiply.  As a cell gets older, it sort of  “wears and tears” and this can cause errors to appear in the genetic make-up of the cell. Some of these errors can cause diseases such as cancer to develop. To prevent this, the cell commits suicide – called apoptosis. When something goes wrong here, the cell does not undergo apoptosis, but instead multiplies endlessly, destroying normal cells in the process.

A cell’s DNA can also be damaged by external factors – such as smoking, causing it to behave out of order and  become cancerous. Before they can do any harm, most cancerous cells will be killed by special killer cells in our body. These killer cells are always on the lookout for anything deviant that can compromise our health, but some cells survive these attacks. Here is a microscopic image of a cancer cell under attack.

Apoptosis: the Ultimate Sacrifice

Here is a cell in apoptosis:

The membrane of the cell blebs as DNA is condensed and destroyed. The cell then shrinks and packages itself into an easily-movable material for macrophages (black arrow). (Credit: Yale Reproductive and Cardiovascular Disease Research Group). Here is an animation of the process, which clearly shows the many steps it takes for a cell to prepare for apoptosis. This a  good thing in itself, after all, we can’t very well have our cells dying just like that all the time, but the consequences can be dire when something goes wrong here. Luckily though, this doesn’t always lead to cancer, as you can see here.

You can click here for more information on apoptosis.

Cancer: Cells Behaving Badly

In this video, you can see live normal cells and cancer cells. Note how different their behaviour is, also pointed out by dr. Thea Tlsty, who made the video.

Metastatis

When a malignant tumor metastasizes, its cells travel to other parts of the body. Unlike most of the body’s normal cells, cancer cells can penetrate the membrane that separates different tissues in the body. After invading adjacent tissue, the cancer cells enter blood and lymphatic vessels or body cavities. When the cells escape from the vessels into surrounding tissue, they can form secondary tumours far from the cancer’s original site.

A computerized video of the process is here.

See also this page on Wikipedia for more information.

Is Cancer a Fungus?

On this website, a pathologist shows why cancer is not a fungus.

Signs of Cancer

Often, cancer doesn’t betray its presence to the naked eye. But sometimes there are tell-tale signs, such as in breast cancer. One of the signs of possible breast cancer is a slight depression or sunken dip in the skin of the breast, known as a “dimpling” of the skin. This can be seen on the website as well.

Some researchers have argued that these tell-tale signs such as dimpling can also be seen in some famous paintings of women.

In The Three Graces by Rubens for example, anomalies can be seen in the left breast of the model on the right, which are said to indicate breast cancer.

Rembrandts painting Bathseba at her Bath also shows abnormalities in the left breast. Whether or not this points to breast cancer, is subject of debate.

The same goes for certain shadows on the left breast of La Fornarina by Raphael, which have been interpreted as an early sign of breast cancer. But this too is being debated, as you can read here.

Cancer Left Untreated

The images speak for themselves.
http://www.pathguy.com/~dlaporte/br_ca.htm
http://www.ariplex.com/ama/amamiche.htm (a victim of the German New Medicine)