Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Tropenpinguin t1_ir9x89t wrote

Cancer cells don't die. Apoptosis doesn't work, so they divide more and more without old cells dying and making room for new ones.

But the new cells have to go somewhere. They are taking room while there is no room for them and may push against organs, blood vessels etc. They may do their original job like building hormones but also uncontrolled or even stop doing their job altogether. Some can infiltrate other tissue destroying it in the process.

18

slouchingtoepiphany t1_ir9z4l9 wrote

This is correct. In addition, cancer cells metastasize and grow tumors in multiple places where they also grow uncontrollably.

8

CelisC t1_irc0lcw wrote

This begs the question how cancer cells are treated during autophagy. Is there anything known on this subject?

1

Tropenpinguin t1_irc4whq wrote

That's a interesting question and I think I will looks this up in more detail over the weekend, but for now I have this:

As far as I know this subject is still unclear. While autophagy would hinder cancer cells in early stages it also would help in later stages when the tumor gets bigger and the cells need more energy than can be provided (because blood vessels have to grow first). But that seems to differ from cancer type to cancer type, as far as I found (just a quick surface search for now).

There are some studies trying to find how to use autophagy to treat cancer.

2