Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

"do you have to kill every cancer cell?"

That's a good question. Before answering this question, let's take a look at how the human body "fights cancer".

Cancer is like a "underworld" to the body. As the saying goes, "Rome was not built in a day", and the "underworld" in the body did not emerge in a day.

Looking at individuals alone, cancer cells have evolutionary advantages over normal cells, such as continuous reproduction and good at adapting to the new environment. But for the body, cancer cells represent rebellion and selfishness, regardless of the overall order. In order to prevent them from appearing in groups, the body has established a complete regulatory system, mainly the immune system.

In the laboratory, mice without an immune system are much more likely to get cancer.

The same is true of people, such as AIDS patients, the immune system is greatly damaged, the risk of cancer will increase several times to dozens of times. The life of cancer cells is the life of the struggle with the immune system.

The trilogy of the struggle between cancer cells and the immune system is scientifically known as the "immune editor" (immunoediting). The whole process usually spans more than a decade or even decades.

Part I: immune clearance. The immune system is strong. When a cancer cell comes out, it kills one.

Part II: immune balance. Cancer cells keep popping up, and the immune system is busy killing people, but they can't get rid of them.

Part III: immune escape. The immune system fails, cancer cells escape supervision, and even reverse the immune system, aiding evil. That's when we saw the cancer.

Among them, the second part is the longest. Studies have found that cancer cells can form an "immune balance" with the human immune system for decades. This used to be a hypothesis, but more and more facts have proved its existence.

Human immune cells are besieging the source of cancer cells: the Magic Story of leafscience.org in 2003, the New England Journal of Medicine reported a shocking story. In 1998, after the death of an organ donor, two kidneys were transplanted to two patients, but only a year later, two people who received kidney transplants successively developed cancer. Moreover, both of the cancer cells are not their own, but from organ donors!

After investigation, it was found that the kidney donor had skin cancer in 1982 and was "cured" after the operation. He reexamined every year for the next 16 years and found no problems. But now the situation has proved that, in fact, there have been a small number of cancer cells lurking in the kidney, but because of the "immune balance", the body does not produce any signs.

So why did the cancer suddenly erupt after the transplant? Because people who receive organ transplants, in order to prevent rejection, will use some immunosuppressive drugs, causing the "immune balance" to be broken, and latent cancer cells erupt.

Before the end of the story, after the discovery of cancer, one of them stopped taking immunosuppressive drugs, operated to remove the kidney with melanoma and received immunotherapy. Two years later, he was also "cured" and could not detect any cancer cells again.

Image source: the story of pexels has twists and turns from beginning to end, but the message is very clear:

Under the control of the immune system, cancer cells can exist harmlessly in the body for a long time.

Immune system failure is an important cause of cancer outbreaks.

Tell me another story. It is well known that prostate cancer is the largest cancer in men, and about 14% of men in the United States will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime. But an autopsy of men who died accidentally found that about 30% of men aged 30 to 39 already had cancerous cells in their prostate, and up to 70% of those over the age of 60. Comparing these data, it can be concluded that the vast majority of prostate cancer cells lie dormant in the body for decades and may never erupt.

This is not limited to prostate cancer. Most people unknowingly coexist harmoniously with some cancer cells for a lifetime.

The enlightenment of "immune balance" to understand the existence of long-term "immune balance" has at least three meanings.

It is important to maintain a healthy immune system.

No matter how expensive a tonic is to boost your immunity, it is no better than the free 12 words "regular exercise, balanced diet, quit smoking and alcohol".

The study found that the vast majority of people who exercised 4 to 6 hours a week had a significantly lower incidence of cancer than those who did not exercise.

Photo Source: pexels, don't panic too much when you see "cancer".

The progress of early screening technology benefits many people, and the survival rate is greatly improved. But it also brings the problem of overtreatment. According to the study, radical treatment is not necessary for some early tumors or nodules. The use of treatment with less side effects, or even simple observation and monitoring may be a better choice.

Fighting cancer does not mean killing every cancer cell.

When the underworld is arrogant, we must fight against the underworld! But after controlling the situation, it is not necessary to blindly pursue to kill every cancer cell. What is the purpose of cancer treatment? Not to "kill cancer cells", but to regain a healthy life! It is necessary to crack down on the underworld, but don't get red-eyed and completely destroy the whole society.

Wen Yuan: new knowledge of Cancer: science ends panic

The copyright belongs to the original author

Editor: Zhang Runxin

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Origin Reading (ID:tupydread), author: Li Zhizhong

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