Tag: cancer
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The Ripple Effect: Why Heart Attacks May Spark Cancer Growth
Izzy McMeeking tells us how recent research has linked heart attacks and cancers
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Targeted cancer drugs can distinguish between healthy and diseased cells
Drug treatment for many diseases often balances the need for high enough drug levels to give a therapeutic benefit against the concurrent increase in the risk of side effects. For example, toxic therapies such as chemotherapy drugs need to be administered at high doses to target and destroy highly replicating cells. However, this results in…
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Research reveals how the body can detect cancerous cells
Cancer is a group of diseases characterised by excessive cell division due to DNA damage, and can afflict many different cell types. Mutations often arise in genes involved in cell growth and survival, which makes cancer difficult to target and treat. However, the field of cancer therapy is moving forward at a swift pace, thanks…
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Could stem cells pave the way to effective cancer treatment?
Blood is vital for our survival. With approximately 10 pints running through our veins, our blood has three main functions; to transport compounds such as gases and nutrients, to protect against pathogenic invasion and to regulate physiological properties, such as the bodies pH and water balance. Remarkably, our body produces approximately 2 million red blood…
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Cancers produce painkillers
Cancer is often synonymous with pain and suffering. Abnormal cell growths produce multiple substances which increase the sensitivity and excitability of nociceptors (pain transmitting neurons), inducing hyperalgesia, a general increased sensitivity to pain, as well as allodynia, when a pain response is triggered by stimuli which do not normally provoke pain. However, not all types…