Cancer cells do live significantly longer than the average cell so would it be plausible to take some aspects of cancer cells and give them to the rest of cells. Don't cancer cells also regenerate and mutliply faster than regular cells which could be used to heal wounds much faster. If our cells live longer wouldn't we live longer? Another idea; to make extremely strong WBCs couldn't we take the cell put it up against disease after disease and when it is killed clone its remains and put it up against more diseases and just keep doing that untill the cell knows how to destroy anything and is super resistant. Sort of like Doomsday from the superman comics. Of course that would probably make organ transplants next to impossible but I would think this is practical and possible if we wanted to put more resources into genetic engineering. I don't know I might just be insane as most say when I suggest such things.
Can cancer be used to extend life?
- Thread starter data2.0
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glandulahypophisea
Registered Member
First of all,we dont know cancer and the mechanisms of neoplasm enough to treat cancer patients effectively,so i think we need a long time to use it as a treatment.And when we die our all cells dont die together at the same time so we cant say we live longer if our cells live longer(its not that simple).Cancer cell's are not normal cells ,they dont do their recent functions anymore.For example in leukemia,blood cells increasing but they are not mature enough to function...I think we can't use cancer(with all of its mechanisms) as a treatment;but maybe some signals,some factors of its mechanism can be helpful...
data2.0
Epigenetics is a relatively new field of study that is working toward explaining such things like cancer and aging (natural death). The cells that make up living things like humans are specialized into skin cells, liver cells etc. One cause of differentiated cells are proteins that make up histones. Some histones bind tightly to various regions of the genome and these regions are hidden. They do no express proteins. Other histones bind loosely allowing expression. It has something to do with methylation patterns on the histones. However, as cells continue to divide, then histones lose their basic methylation patterns. The end result is DNA regions once bound tightly to histones are then free to express.
Take for example one time over exposure to sunlight. Damaged skin is repaired by division of cells. However, constant exposure to sunlight causes cells to divide more. The constant need to replace damaged skin eventually causes skin to age. One possible cause of aging involves abnormal histones caused by excessive cell division.
Cancer is fairly similar. Cells that loose basic histone controls sometimes go into rapid division. There could be some external causes like sunlight and smoking that cause this damage.
Perhaps when research finds better methods for controlling cancer, then it move toward using cancer cells as a cure. Research is progressing very quickly.
DougB
Epigenetics is a relatively new field of study that is working toward explaining such things like cancer and aging (natural death). The cells that make up living things like humans are specialized into skin cells, liver cells etc. One cause of differentiated cells are proteins that make up histones. Some histones bind tightly to various regions of the genome and these regions are hidden. They do no express proteins. Other histones bind loosely allowing expression. It has something to do with methylation patterns on the histones. However, as cells continue to divide, then histones lose their basic methylation patterns. The end result is DNA regions once bound tightly to histones are then free to express.
Take for example one time over exposure to sunlight. Damaged skin is repaired by division of cells. However, constant exposure to sunlight causes cells to divide more. The constant need to replace damaged skin eventually causes skin to age. One possible cause of aging involves abnormal histones caused by excessive cell division.
Cancer is fairly similar. Cells that loose basic histone controls sometimes go into rapid division. There could be some external causes like sunlight and smoking that cause this damage.
Perhaps when research finds better methods for controlling cancer, then it move toward using cancer cells as a cure. Research is progressing very quickly.
DougB