Everyone Is Going To Die… but why so soon?
Currently, in cancer research, the tumor microenvironment is being focused on more as it is able to either promote or inhibit carcinogenesis and metastasis by distributing cancer cells with growth factors and certain supply of oxygen and nutrients.
Carcinogenesis is the initiation of cancer formation.
Metastasis is when cancer cells break away from the main tumor and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
Importantly, aging is one of the main risk factors for many types of cancer and if you read my other articles, you would know that it is accompanied by an accumulation of senescent cells in various tissues of the body. As senescent cells actively shape their tissue microenvironment in a similar fashion as CAF (cancer-associated fibroblasts), they are one of the main distributors to age-associated cancer.
To all those like my friend Ron Weasley, let me explain how this works. Well, first we need to know more about how cancer and age collaborate with each other.
The risk of getting cancer usually increases remarkably after the age of 50, and half of all cancers occur at the age of 66 and above. In fact, a quarter of new cancer diagnoses are in people aged 65 to 74! Now, I am not saying that people younger than the age of 50 can’t (and don’t) get cancer. For the purpose of this article, I am going to talk about elder people.
As we age, we end up facing things like stress, multiple responsibilities and along with this, our cells are constantly dividing. When our cells divide, our telomeres shorten. Which eventually causes these cells to die.
Telomeres are compound structures, like those at the end of a shoelace, that protect the ends of the chromosomes that also prevent the ends from touching each other.
In my previous article, I explained what senescent cells are and what they do to you. You should read that first to get a good idea about why they are bad and then with this article see how they can be cancerous.
Going back on track… with all this stress, and our telomeres shortening, our cells assemble into groups of senescent cells. In a senescent cell, there is bacteria that creates diseases (which you would know from reading the article above…). This bacteria mixed with bacteria from other cells has the potential to turn into cancer cells, which obviously.. give you cancer in a specific part of your body.
The more you age, and the more senescent cells you have, the greater the chances of you gaining cancer cells. This is why most people think that older people are more prone to cancer. It is not a disease flying around the world. It is created inside of you.
CRAZY RIGHT!!! Maybe, if we could find a way to stop senescent cells from spreading this bacteria, or even just found a way to get rid of them… we could save MILLIONS of lives!
More research is still being done in this field on senescent cells and we are trying to find a way to eliminate them in humans… but maybe not fast enough. That is for another article. See you next time!
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