Cancer Biology - Research Paper Example

What makes it unique for biologists is the entire process that causes cancer. Researchers spent years finding out the roots of this disease and to discover the best possible remedies for curing this fatal pathology. Cancer is a challenge for even the first world countries. It is an unavoidable war opponent which seems to be standing in the way of the scientists and the afflicted people. Even President Nixon attempted a war on cancer and spent more than $ 5 billion to America’s National Cancer Institue (NCI), annually to counter this life taking disease.

This is owing to the fact that the disease is life hampering and affects the quality of life of the patients affected. Professionals are now considering involving physicists in the field of exploration because they seem to have given up on the possibility of finding the exact cause of cancer. This finding of the most appropriate cause for cancer will assist in reaching to the best conclusion for the treatment modalities of cancer and it will serve to be a breakthrough in the field of medicine (Davies 2012).

The mechanism of cancerous disease is very complicated since alterations of metabolism are a very common manifestation of these oncological changes in the cells. These manifestations are still not obvious and significant for benign tumors and for tumors that are not of very high grade. Cancer cells heavily rely on high glucose dosage owing to their increased energy needs and this increased energy demand aids in the detection of these cancerous cells. Based on research, tumor is detected according to its phenotype.

The metabolic phenotype of this cell is monitored by the changes in the genetic structure of the cells as well as the changes that are taking place outside the cancerous cells in the normal tissues. It was deduced that the changes in the metabolism are a very significant feature of the cancer cells and they form the basis for the rapid multiplication of these cells. Cancerous signals are transmitted to these cells which result in the cascade of duplication. The target of these biologists and researches is to find a way to slow down the metabolism of the tumor “progression” so as to enhance the treatment of cancer and produce excellent results (Cairns et al. 2011). In order to understand the complex biology of cancer, it is highly essential to recognize the “hallmarks of cancers” that help identify the traits that initiate and speed up the cancer cells to survive.

These hallmarks include cellular energy metabolism through a process which results in the growth of cells, eventually taking over the normal processes that occur in the human body leading to increased operations in other adjacent cells as well and resulting in a cancerous growth. On the other hand, another hallmark that enables the cancer cells to replicate is the suppression of the immune system caused by these cells. Both these capabilities of the cancer cells speed up the cancerous growth in the body.

Recent studies have also shown that a tumor cell is more complex than a normal healthy tissue (Hanahan & Weinberg 2011). Cancer is a growing concern for public as well. People have become superstitious about its whereabouts. But Davies and his fellow researchers have come to believe and promote that cancer is like an aging agent to which everyone conforms to at one