CSB #4 How Old Is Your Cancer?

Cancer

• Prognosis - The likely course of a disease or ailment
• Pancreas - A large elongated exocrine gland located behind the stomach
• Cancer - The uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body

Summary

When a person is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the person has 5% chance of surviving once it has been diagnosed. This is because the cancer is usually diagnosed 15 years after the first cancer-causing cells appear. What the model says is that cancer cells appear ten years after the first cancer-causing mutation and then another five years pass before the cancer cells actually spread and become deadly. For the past two years, scientists have been bringing pancreatic cancer screening closer to reality. Scientists have found four RNAs in saliva of 60 treatable pancreatic-cancer patients and 30 cancer-free individuals. that can correctly identify cancer 90% of the time. These technologies are not commercially available but they will progress greatly in the near future.

Discussion


I think this article is interesting and important for everyone. This is especially useful for people who believe that they have pancreatic cancer because this will reduce the chance of death. If this technology is perfected then scientists  and doctors can see if a person has cancer and can easily provide treatment or remove the mutation before the cells become fatal and kill the person. Scientists should be aware of this because it can severely help people if this is perfected quickly. 


Questions

• Could this also help scientists find cancers in different parts of the body before they are deadly?
• How long will this take to be allowed to be used commercially and how much will it improve?

Citations

• Moyer, Melinda Wenner. "How Old Is Your Cancer?" Scientific America. N.p., n.d.
       Web. 9 Jan. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/
       article.cfm?id=how-old-is-your-cancer>.
• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-old-is-your-cancer