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Circulating Tumor Cells

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Detecting the rare, renegade cancer cells

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Detecting the rare, renegade cancer cells

Very early in tumour development, the tumour may send out some extremely sneaky cells into the bloodstream. The cells may circulate in the bloodstream as dormant cancer cells for months or years, and may even survive cancer treatment aimed at treating a primary cancer. The cells are called Circulating Tumour Cells, and are the cause of cancer spread, metastases. It is the metastases, rather than the primary tumour, which is most often responsible for patient fatality. Circulating Tumour Cells have become a hot topic in...

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Survival of the fittest in cancer

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Survival of the fittest in cancer

One cannot write about evolution without referencing Darwin and his evolutionary theory. It's astounding how relevant this over 150-year idea is. Let's first tease out the theory, so that we are all on the same page.

Darwin described how species evolved via descent with modification. This means that...

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Which chemotherapy kills the cells responsible for cancer spread, doctor?

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Which chemotherapy kills the cells responsible for cancer spread, doctor?

Chemotherapy is a mainstay of tumour therapy. The current treatment guidelines for prescribing a treatment rests heavily on how a treatment or treatment combination has fared statistically, in terms of rates of cancer comeback and survival without cancer spread. The protocol does not include testing the efficacy of the drug against the unique nature of a person's tumour. 

Each person's cancer is unique...

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Gene expression and the regulation of genes

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Gene expression and the regulation of genes

A gene that is expressed, simply means that it is active. If a gene is a set of instructions, gene expression simply means that the instructions are being read and acted upon by cellular machinery. The result of gene expression is a functional protein, or phenotype.

The cellular machine that 'reads' the...

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Genetics, explained

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Genetics, explained

What is DNA? What is a gene? What is a mutation?

In brief, DNA is a long molecule that stores information. DNA is located in the centre (nucleus) of every cell and contains all the instructions necessary for the organism to function. Similar to pearls on a necklace, along the DNA strand there are millions of basic structural units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide (pearl) is one of four types: A, T, G or C, as determined by the nitrogenous base they contain, i.e., nucleotide 'A' has Adenine, 'T' has Tyrosine, 'C' has Cysteine and 'G' has Guanine. These four types of...

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Bacon and cancer

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Bacon and cancer

The new classification of processed meat as carcinogen to humans Group 1 by the World Health Organisation

This week, bacon was in the news. It has been grouped in carcinogen to humans Group 1, together with tobacco smoking asbestos. People do love bacon. My daughter used to work in a cafe, and she tells me that the customers would go to great lengths to describe the exact way they would like their bacon cooked. But she's a scientist now, and has looked into this new classification for us. I hope that the following paragraphs help to explain the science and research behind the new classification, and what it might mean for the bacon lovers among us.