Sharks Get Cancer, Mole Rats Don't

Sharks Get Cancer, Mole Rats Don't PDF

Author: James S. Welsh, MD

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2016-03-29

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1633881555

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This fresh and fascinating exploration of new directions in cancer research focuses on the important role of the immune system in combatting this dread disease. Integrating clues from the animal kingdom, the veterinary clinic, extraordinary human cases, and even embryology, the author—a cancer physician, biologist, and physicist—creates a novel and compelling account of tumor immunology and the promises of immunotherapy. As the author explains, animals offer us many tantalizing clues about the nature of cancer in humans. Tasmanian devils are on the verge of extinction due to a virulent form of contagious cancer; soft-shelled clams on the East coast of North America are vanishing due to another epidemic of contagious cancer; dogs also contract a contagious cancer but they spontaneously overcome it; and a type of mouse and the homely mole rat are not susceptible to the disease at all. In humans, there are rare instances of spontaneous cures of advanced cancers induced by radiation. An uncommon form of dwarfism called Laron syndrome confers total cancer immunity on the people who inherit the condition. And recent research suggests that cancer has stolen the secret that shields the embryo against hostile attacks from the mother’s immune system. The author makes a convincing case that what all of these diverse examples have in common is the immune system and its ability or inability to respond to malignancies. He concludes with a review of the exciting research on the human immune system and the development of new treatments that are inducing the immune system to combat and conquer even the deadliest cancers.

Rebel Cell

Rebel Cell PDF

Author: Kat Arney

Publisher: BenBella Books

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1950665518

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Why do we get cancer? Is it our modern diets and unhealthy habits? Chemicals in the environment? An unwelcome genetic inheritance? Or is it just bad luck? The answer is all of these and none of them. We get cancer because we can't avoid it—it's a bug in the system of life itself. Cancer exists in nearly every animal and has afflicted humans as long as our species has walked the earth. In Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal, Kat Arney reveals the secrets of our most formidable medical enemy, most notably the fact that it isn't so much a foreign invader as a double agent: cancer is hardwired into the fundamental processes of life. New evidence shows that this disease is the result of the same evolutionary changes that allowed us to thrive. Evolution helped us outsmart our environment, and it helps cancer outsmart its environment as well—alas, that environment is us. Explaining why "everything we know about cancer is wrong," Arney, a geneticist and award-winning science writer, guides readers with her trademark wit and clarity through the latest research into the cellular mavericks that rebel against the rigid biological "society" of the body and make a leap towards anarchy. We need to be a lot smarter to defeat such a wily foe—smarter even than Darwin himself. In this new world, where we know that every cancer is unique and can evolve its way out of trouble, the old models of treatment have reached their limits. But we are starting to decipher cancer's secret evolutionary playbook, mapping the landscapes in which these rogue cells survive, thrive, or die, and using this knowledge to predict and confound cancer's next move. Rebel Cell is a story about life and death, hope and hubris, nature and nurture. It's about a new way of thinking about what this disease really is and the role it plays in human life. Above all, it's a story about where cancer came from, where it's going, and how we can stop it.

Methuselah's Zoo

Methuselah's Zoo PDF

Author: Steven N. Austad

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-08-15

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0262547171

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Stories of long-lived animal species—from thousand-year-old tubeworms to 400-year-old sharks—and what they might teach us about human health and longevity. Opossums in the wild don’t make it to the age of three; our pet cats can live for a decade and a half; cicadas live for seventeen years (spending most of them underground). Whales, however, can live for two centuries and tubeworms for several millennia. Meanwhile, human life expectancy tops out around the mid-eighties, with some outliers living past 100 or even 110. Is there anything humans can learn from the exceptional longevity of some animals in the wild? In Methusaleh’s Zoo, Steven Austad tells the stories of some extraordinary animals, considering why, for example, animal species that fly live longer than earthbound species and why animals found in the ocean live longest of all. Austad—the leading authority on longevity in animals—argues that the best way we will learn from these long-lived animals is by studying them in the wild. Accordingly, he proceeds habitat by habitat, examining animals that spend most of their lives in the air, comparing insects, birds, and bats; animals that live on, and under, the ground—from mole rats to elephants; and animals that live in the sea, including quahogs, carp, and dolphins. Humans have dramatically increased their lifespan with only a limited increase in healthspan; we’re more and more prone to diseases as we grow older. By contrast, these species have successfully avoided both environmental hazards and the depredations of aging. Can we be more like them?

Understanding Cancer

Understanding Cancer PDF

Author: David Tarin

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-02-02

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 303097393X

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This book provides a unique, wide-ranging description of the phenomenon of cancer and its pathological effects in diverse species including humans, domesticated and wild animals, invertebrates, and plants. The broad scope of information presented is used to construct radical new insights into biological self-regulation and explain their relevance to its disruption by cancerous growth and spread within the human body. Mechanisms of action of carcinogenic agents, initiation, progression, metastasis, inappropriate gene expression, dormancy, latency, regression, and reasons for susceptibility and/or resistance to cancer are all considered. Also discussed are criteria for pathological diagnosis, advances in treatment, implications for public health, and pitfalls in diagnosis and interpretation of experimental results. The book describes operational mechanisms of cancer at the levels of whole individual, organ, tissue, cell, molecular, and even atomic (quantum) scales of structural and physiological order. Evidence is assembled from all these levels of organization to show that cancer is a dynamically changing disorder and that it is an inherent and perpetual risk of multicellular composition. This provides pragmatic new biological and clinical perspectives on malignant neoplasia. The biological insight is that it is a consequence of progressing miscommunication within a cellular society. The clinical perspective is realistic but optimistic in reasoning that, although cancer can never be completely eradicated from human life, because it is a disorder of our intrinsic biological constitution, it can be controlled and ameliorated and even cured in a proportion of individuals. The text is profusely illustrated with over 300 macroscopic and microscopic pictures. It will stimulate curiosity and interest specialists, as well as beginners, in many scientific disciplines and provides copious references to the medical and scientific literature supporting its conclusions. Readers from fields as diverse as medicine, pathology, veterinary sciences, cell biology, molecular biology, developmental biology, and epidemiology will find the information the book contains thought-provoking, interesting, and useful. Additionally, specialists in occupational and environmental health and legal experts focusing on exposure to carcinogenic materials and pollution will find the contents valuable and informative.

The Emperor of All Maladies

The Emperor of All Maladies PDF

Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-08-09

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1439170916

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

Ecology and Evolution of Cancer

Ecology and Evolution of Cancer PDF

Author: Beata Ujvari

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2017-02-08

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0128043806

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Ecology and Evolution of Cancer is a timely work outlining ideas that not only represent a substantial and original contribution to the fields of evolution, ecology, and cancer, but also goes beyond by connecting the interfaces of these disciplines. This work engages the expertise of a multidisciplinary research team to collate and review the latest knowledge and developments in this exciting research field. The evolutionary perspective of cancer has gained significant international recognition and interest, which is fully understandable given that somatic cellular selection and evolution are elegant explanations for carcinogenesis. Cancer is now generally accepted to be an evolutionary and ecological process with complex interactions between tumor cells and their environment sharing many similarities with organismal evolution. As a critical contribution to this field of research the book is important and relevant for the applications of evolutionary biology to understand the origin of cancers, to control neoplastic progression, and to prevent therapeutic failures. Covers all aspects of the evolution of cancer, appealing to researchers seeking to understand its origins and effects of treatments on its progression, as well as to lecturers in evolutionary medicine Functions as both an introduction to cancer and evolution and a review of the current research on this burgeoning, exciting field, presented by an international group of leading editors and contributors Improves understanding of the origin and the evolution of cancer, aiding efforts to determine how this disease interferes with biotic interactions that govern ecosystems Highlights research that intends to apply evolutionary principles to help predict emergence and metastatic progression with the aim of improving therapies

Sharks Don't Get Cancer

Sharks Don't Get Cancer PDF

Author: I. William Lane

Publisher: Avery

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780895295200

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Examines the use of shark cartilage for preventing and treating cancer and other degenerative diseases, discussing research, the results of clincial testing, the FDA, and other topics

My Mother's Breast

My Mother's Breast PDF

Author: Laurie Tarkan

Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing

Published: 1999-04-01

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1461600286

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Focusing on the unique psychological needs of women who must deal with the pain and devastation of a mother's breast cancer while repressing their fears for their own health, Tarkan profiles a wide range of women who have witnessed the effects of breast cancer.

To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse PDF

Author: Virginia Woolf

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2023-01-01

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1504083865

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This landmark work of modernist literature explores the inner lives of a typical English family while vividly exploring the nature of loss and memory. Following her celebrated masterpiece Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf continues to develop her groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness technique in To the Lighthouse. Every summer, the Ramsey family returns to the Isle of Skye for a tranquil holiday, where the imposing lighthouse seems to promise everlasting constancy. But as their idyllic holiday confronts the realities of World War I, the Ramseys must also face the inescapable nature of change. A profound evocation of marriage, parenthood, aging, and grief, To the Lighthouse is regarded as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.