Breast Cancer on the Cellular Level
Breast Cancer at the Cellular Level
There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of life-threatening tumors that continue to grow and invade the body, destroying all in its path. Although this is an accurate explanation of what breast cancer actually is, there really is so much more to it. Understanding Breast cancer at the cellular level gives us greater opportunities for treatment development as well as a better insight to what is actually happening in the body when afflicted with breast cancer.
It all starts with an alteration to the genetic code of the DNA of the breast cell. This change in the original code is referred to as a mutation. Mutations may occur randomly or they may be caused by substances called mutagens. There are an assortment of different factors that may contribute to the occurrence of mutations other than the errors that happen spontaneously.
Environmental and chemical influences are two more common other factors. DNA interacts with the environment constantly, and at times these interactions can effect the DNA in a negative manner. For example, the ultraviolet light rays given off by the sun may react with a person’s DNA and cause mutations to occur in his or her skin cells that may subsequently lead to skin cancer. In the case of breast cancer, ionizing radiation such as cosmic rays, gamma rays,
There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of life-threatening tumors that continue to grow and invade the body, destroying all in its path. Although this is an accurate explanation of what breast cancer actually is, there really is so much more to it. Understanding Breast cancer at the cellular level gives us greater opportunities for treatment development as well as a better insight to what is actually happening in the body when afflicted with breast cancer.
It all starts with an alteration to the genetic code of the DNA of the breast cell. This change in the original code is referred to as a mutation. Mutations may occur randomly or they may be caused by substances called mutagens. There are an assortment of different factors that may contribute to the occurrence of mutations other than the errors that happen spontaneously.
Environmental and chemical influences are two more common other factors. DNA interacts with the environment constantly, and at times these interactions can effect the DNA in a negative manner. For example, the ultraviolet light rays given off by the sun may react with a person’s DNA and cause mutations to occur in his or her skin cells that may subsequently lead to skin cancer. In the case of breast cancer, ionizing radiation such as cosmic rays, gamma rays,