From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in February of 2015…
We got news a few
days ago that a friend of mine with skin may have had a site that it had
metastasized to.
With a swelling
knee, he went to the doctor. Fearfully, he reported that the clinic was afraid
that his cancer had spread. He underwent a full day of blood tests,
ultrasounds, and had fluid withdrawn from the area as well.
While the upshot
is that his skin cancer HAD NOT SPREAD (hallelujah!), it got me to wondering.
I did a series of
articles on metastatic breast cancer a few years ago – two of them are the most
read on the blog. My own recent brush with skin cancer has made me very aware
of the possibility of my own cancer spreading.
So I did some
reading. The type of skin cancer that I had has a microscopically small chance
of metastasizing. My friends type does in fact spread.
How EXACTLY does
breast cancer, skin cancer, and other kinds of cancer spread? “By
metastasizing,
dummy!”
“Yeah, yeah,
yeah,” I would reply. (I’d also make a smart aleck remark about the Beatles.)
“But HOW does it spread? How do cancer cells get from the skin to the knee or
from the breast to the bones? Do they just pack up their little twisted
chromosomes, wave to their family of twisted cells, and head on our into the
Wide World of the body they’ve coopted for their evil intent?”
So, I did my
research, starting (and I ONLY start here, I use the primary sources shortly
afterward!) with Wikipedia.
Wiki defines
metastasis as “the spread of a cancer or disease from one organ or part to
another not directly connected with it.”
Hmmm…while that’s
simple to understand, it doesn’t bring me any closer to WHAT happens. I don’t
understand! Turns out, neither does the medical community, exactly: “Metastasis is
a complex series of steps in which cancer cells leave the original tumor site
and migrate to other parts of the body via the bloodstream, the lymphatic
system, or by direct extension.”
When DOCTORS say
the steps to metastatic cancers spreading, it often means that they don’t know
exactly what’s happening. Great – that should be the next Great Discovery, “How
To Stop The Spread Of Cancer Cells”…
So, here goes.
“Cancer occurs
after a one single cell in a tissue is progressively genetically damaged to
produce cells with uncontrolled proliferation.” The question I have is WHAT is
it that does the genetic damage? With over a hundred different cancers, the
list is probably just as long. There ARE things we know of that can damage
cells on a genetic level – the ultraviolet rays of sunlight can damage cell
genes, switching on the cell to grow uncontrollably. This, naturally, leads to
skin cancer.
The chemicals in
cigarette smoke (which contains 7000 (!!!) DIFFERENT substances) are mostly
harmless. But of those several thousand, seventy are known to damage the
genetic components of cells – plus the RADIATION that tobacco plants pick up
and concentrate in their leaves. The obvious end result here is lung cancer.
Other chemicals in
the environment, as well as carrying a family history of different kinds of
cancer also damage cells and create the “runaway effect” that characterizes ANY
cancer.
So WHAT happens
then?
Cells grow out of
control resulting in a tumor. In the case of my own skin cancer, simple removal
of the offending (or affected) area stops the cancer. Monitoring over the rest
of my life will be a part of every checkup from now until the day I die. In my
wife’s case, chemicals specifically targeted to annihilate breast cancer cells
were introduced to her body after the source of the cancer cells – breast
tissue – was surgically removed in a double mastectomy. She is now cancer-free,
as is the wife of a good friend of mine and one of my colleague teachers.
Again, monitoring over the rest of my wife’s life will be a part of every
checkup and physical.
The effort to
first destroy the SOURCE of the cancer and then destroy those cells wherever
they may have “landed” using chemicals, radiation, and physical excision of
tissue is doctors stop the spread of cancer.
Next time around,
I’ll be delving deeper into this whole concept of METASTASIS...
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastasis
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