Wednesday, November 15, 2017

TP53 Sensor Can Stop Cancer In Its Earliest Stages

      In an article published on ScienceDaily, it discusses a new mechanism that can help stop cancer in its early stages. In normal cells, there are oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that make sure that nothing goes awry during cell division. Oncogenes signal the cell to multiply, and tumor suppressor genes, or TP53 genes, inhibit those signals from the oncogenes to tell the cell to stop. Cancer begins to take form when there are mutations in either of these genes, particularly in tumor suppressor genes. If there is a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene, oncogenes will activate the cell to uncontrollably multiply and signal will never be inhibited by the tumor suppressor gene.
     Researchers came up with the idea of putting a sensor on the TP53 gene which essentially works like a smoke detector. When the sensor picks up abnormal activity (or lack of activity) coming from the TP53 gene, the sensor will cause the cell to initiate apoptosis, which essentially causes the cell to kill itself. I believe that this TP53 sensor is going to break grounds for cancer research because not only is it noninvasive, but it is going to be able to stop cancer in its tracks at its earliest stages. Also, it could prevent cancer from continuing to spread.




4 comments:

  1. This is a interesting way of detecting cancer. I do believe this will help individuals with cancer because professionals will know when something abnormal occurs in the body earlier. With that they would be able to attack cancer at a earlier stage rather than dealing with it when it has already spread.

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  2. I believe that this will change the future of medicine around the world. By detecting cancer at such an early stage, we can potentially save millions. A lot of cancer is not noticed soon enough and with this smoke detector like detector, doctors can act sooner.

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  3. WOW! Something that can detect cancer in its earliest stages sounds like a fantasy; however, this article gives me hope that it can become a reality! Cancer continues to hurt its victims, their friends, and their families tremendously! What I so badly want to see is a generation of children growing up who won't ever have to feel the pain or even know the evils of cancer!

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  4. The ability to stop cancer in its early stages would be amazing! Everyone knows someone who has been effected by cancer, and early detection could save many lives! Patients with cancer that is detected in earlier stages are more likely to survive than those who discover it in later stages. So, the ability to detect cancer ever earlier has the potential to revolutionize medicine and cancer care.

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