CANCER

Not a single disease, but like viruses (a cold is different from measles is different from HIV) the cancers are a hundred different diseases
Breast cancer itself is at least 3 diseases.

Several Steps

	continuous growth How Cancers start error in the signaling pathways cell cycle clock controls fail P53 in response to genetic damage stops the cell cycle, in case of severe damage it induces apoptosis
	immortal telomere table Dolly's Cells are older than expected
film from cells alive	evade immune system tactics
	vascularization
	mobility and invasion
	wasting (cachexia) kills 25% of cancer patients

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clonal selection

dna with mutagen Aflatoxin	causes risk factors chemical genetic risks oncogenes
	new treatments chemoprevention and diet
	immunotherapies monoclonal antibodies new drugs Herceptin gene therapies future cancer therapies adenovirus more
	angiogenesis inhibitors thalidomide as angiogenesis inhibitor

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ANTI CANCER DRUGS

	There are least 2 types of estrogen receptors. Tamoxifen blocks estrogen from receptors in some tissues such as breast, while it mimics estrogen in other tissues. Thus it can help protect against breast cancer while offering estrogen's protective benefits with osteoporosis and heart attack .
	Taxol from the Yew tree binds to microtubules which are necessary for cell division among many other things.
	DNA requires the nucleic acid base Thymine which is made by methylating Uracil. The chemotherapy drug Fluoro uracil blocks this reaction halting cell reproduction.
	Folate (a vitamin) is involved with methylations such as the one above that converts uracil to thymine. The chemotherapy drug methotrexate blocks the processing of folate into an active form. The net effect is the same as with flurouracil

drug trials

Treatments

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biochem 

 drugs

• Paul Reisberg preisberg@wellesley.edu
• Chemistry Department
• Date Created: September 3, 1997
• Last Modified: November 9, 1999
• Expires: August 30, 2000