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Cancer: Solving an age-old problem

01.01.70

A century ago, life expectancy in the United States was 49 years. People were more likely to die of infections, heart attack or complications from other conditions such as diabetes than they are today. Our improved sewage systems and community hygiene mean we are exposed to fewer infections than previously, and modern antibiotics help us survive many of the infections we do get. Effective medications have also reduced deaths from heart disease and diabetes. Today, we live about 30 years longer than we did in 1900. In addition, cancer is more common in older tissues, so many more of us now grow old enough to get cancer.

Decades of laboratory and clinical research dedicated to human health have shown that this ancient disease called cancer is not one disease but more than a hundred. Each type of cancer is named after the cell that becomes cancerous. For example, lymphoma is a disease of white blood cells called lymphocytes, and glioma is a disease of glial cells, which support neurons in the brain. Carcinomas that occur in the skin, breast, prostate, colon and lungs are often referred to as solid tumours, and are named according to the tissue they come from. They account for more than 80 of the genes known to be involved in human cancer. Many of those genes are important in cell communication, growth signalling, apoptosis (cell suicide) and DNA repair. Each of these functions is crucial to the survival and function of a multicellular animal. When these functions are disrupted in a cell, cancer can result.

Source: Nature.com