Cancer

Chemosensitivity and Cancer Susceptibility

Cancer is defined as a malignant growth that tends to spread indefinitely and to reproduce itself. According to the American Cancer Society, 50 percent of American men and 33 percent of American women get cancer in their lifetime. Though cancer differs in onset, growth rate, level of fatality, and cause, all cancers arise from cells that lost their normal growth controls. Normal cell growth is controlled by a variety of different growth factors, such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Cancer cells grow independent of normal growth signals.
Most cancer treatments aim to destroy the cancer cells using radiation (radiation therapy) or toxic chemicals (chemotherapy). Chemotherapy drugs interfere with the ability of a cancer to divide and reproduce it's self. The name Chemotherapy literally means chemical therapy. Often if doctors can discover a tumor before metastasis occurs, doctors can try and remove the growth with out using cyt...