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The human body contains approximately 30-40 trillion cells. Just like how we replace old belongings, our body must replace old or damaged cells with new ones to stay healthy. This constant renewal is a crucial part of how our bodies maintain themselves. The process of removing old or damaged cells is called apoptosis. Cancer cells, however, have found a way to avoid cell death, which helps them survive longer and spread in the body.
This article will explore how cancer cells avoid cell death and what this means for cancer treatment.
Apoptosis is also called programmed cell death. When a cell is damaged beyond repair or no longer needed, it receives signals to start the apoptosis process. The cell then begins to break itself down in an orderly way without harming the surrounding healthy cells.
Apoptosis is vital for maintaining our body’s health. Without it, we would accumulate excess cells, disrupting the balance of our tissues and organs. Apoptosis removes problematic cells, such as those with DNA damage or other defects that can’t be repaired, preventing potential harm to the body. Cells with mutations that could lead to cancer are also typically eliminated via apoptosis, serving as a crucial anti-cancer mechanism.
Cells receive specific signals that trigger apoptosis. These signals can come from within the cell or other cells in the body. A cell gets this signal when:
At the heart of this process are proteins that act as the body’s quality control team. One of the most important is p53, often called the “guardian of the genome”. If p53 detects significant damage to a cell’s DNA, it halts cell division to give the cell time to repair itself. But, if the damage is too severe, p53 initiates apoptosis. This is a crucial safety measure to protect the body from potential damage.
When cells fail to respond to signals that indicate it’s time to undergo apoptosis, they can continue to grow and divide uncontrollably. This unchecked growth is a key factor in the development of cancer.
Tumors are clusters of abnormal cells that can grow larger over time. If not controlled, they can metastasize, invading surrounding tissues and spreading to other body parts. This ability to spread makes cancer particularly dangerous, as it can affect multiple organs and systems, complicate treatments, and reduce the chance of recovery.
Apoptosis is one of the body’s primary defenses against cancer.
When functioning correctly, apoptosis maintains a healthy cellular environment by:
By constantly monitoring and removing problematic cells, apoptosis helps create an environment where healthy cells can thrive. This ongoing process of cellular quality control is a fundamental aspect of the body's ability to protect itself against the development of cancer and other diseases.
Cancer cells have developed clever ways to avoid apoptosis:
Cancer cells that evade apoptosis gain a significant survival advantage. By avoiding programmed cell death, these cells can live longer and divide uncontrollably, forming tumors. Cancer cells can grow into nearby tissues and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system, allowing them to establish new tumors. Metastatic cancer is more challenging to treat because it affects more than one site in the body, making it crucial to understand how these cells avoid apoptosis and spread.
Cancer treatments like chemotherapy often work by triggering apoptosis in cancer cells, essentially trying to activate their "self-destruct" button. However, many cancer cells have found ways to disable this process, making them resistant to treatment.
This resistance is a major challenge in cancer therapy and explains why cancer can sometimes return after treatment. Even if most cancer cells are killed, a few resistant cells might survive and continue to grow, eventually leading to a recurrence. This is why researchers are constantly working on new strategies to overcome this resistance and improve cancer treatments.
As mentioned, metastasis is the process by which cancer cells break away from the original tumor and form new tumors in other parts of the body. This ability to spread makes cancer particularly dangerous and difficult to treat.
For cancer cells to successfully metastasize, they must evade apoptosis. Normally, cells that detach from their proper location would die. However, cancer cells develop ways to avoid this fate, allowing them to survive their journey through the body.
These rogue cells can endure harsh conditions, like traveling through the bloodstream, by resisting apoptosis. This survival ability enables them to reach new sites in the body and establish secondary tumors.
Once cancer has metastasized, it becomes significantly more challenging to treat effectively. The spread of cancer to multiple locations in the body often makes it impossible to eliminate through localized treatments like surgery or radiation. Therefore, understanding how cancer cells avoid apoptosis during metastasis is critical for developing new therapies that can target this process and improve outcomes for patients with advanced cancer.
Cancer cells evade apoptosis by altering genetic pathways, silencing tumor suppressor genes, and overexpressing survival proteins. This ability to avoid cell death allows them to survive, grow, and spread, making the disease more aggressive and difficult to treat. Because cancer becomes much harder to manage once it has metastasized, early detection is crucial. Catching cancer before it develops resistance to apoptosis and spreads can significantly improve treatment outcomes and increase the chances of successful recovery.
Want to be proactive about your health? Why not book an Ezra full body scan today? Detect any issues early and put yourself on the road to long-term health. Our yearly scan screens for potential cancers early, using AI to enhance the process, making it more efficient and affordable.
