A Closer Look at Cancer

A Closer Look at Cancer Part I: KWL Start this activity off by completing the “K” (What do you know about cancer) and the “W” (what do you want to know about cancer) portion of the table below. The last section, the “L”, should be saved for last. What do you Know about cancer? What do you Want to know about cancer? it is a disease in which how do you contract cells divide uncontrollably cancer? What have you Learned about cancer? cancer is not a disease of modern civilization, and different types of cancer has different rates of treatability. Part II: The History of Cancer Cancer is a very serious and complex disease. Though we are making new discoveries every day, cancer is not a new disease; it has been around since mankind. It is hard to say if the incidences of cancer are higher today than they were hundreds of years ago, because then the disease was not well understood and often not diagnosed. The oldest known description of cancer was found on an Egyptian papyri written between 3000- 2000 BC. The writings referred to tumors of the breast. Also, mummified remains of both Peruvian Incas and Egyptians dating back to 1600 BC contained lesions (abnormal growth) of bones, which suggests cancer. Cancer is not contagious because it does not involve the transmission of pathogens. Cancer is actually caused by a faulty gene in your own cells. A tumor is simply a cluster of cells, which can vary in size. Tumors can be malignant, which means the cells are spreading to other parts of the body (cancer), or benign, which means that the cells are contained in one area- they cannot spread or grow in other parts of the body (noncancerous). The ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates is known to be the first man to recognize the difference between benign and malignant tumors. He wrote manuscripts of cancer found in many regions of the body. Hippocrates noticed that blood vessels swell around malignant tumors. The swollen blood vessels reminded him of crab claws- so he called the disease karkinos (Greek for “crab”). In English, this term translates to carcinos- or carcinoma, which is the medical term for cancer. 1. What evidence do we have that cancer is not a disease of modern civilization? The oldest description of cancer was found on an Egyptian papyri written between 3000-2000 BC 2. What is a tumor? A cluster of cells, which can vary in size. 3. Name and describe the two types of tumors. Malignant, which means the cells are spreading or benign, which means the cells are contained. 4. Who was Hippocrates and why did he essentially name the disease after a crab? He was a greek philosopher and he named it after a crab because the swollen blood vessels reminded him of crab claws. 5. Based on the reading, why do you think we refer to the disease as “cancer”? Because cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell division. Part III: What is Cancer? Recall that your body is made of billions of cells. Cells are constantly dividing to make more of themselves. How else would you have transformed from a baby to an (almost) adult? Cells divide for several reasons, including: growth, repair, and to replace. Cells need to repair themselves from injury. Humans do have some small capabilities of regeneration. If you break a bone, new bone cells will grow to heal. If you scrape Mutagens are substances that can change DNA. cell division and oncogenes are powerful mutagens. 9. What is an oncogene? Cells that have genes that start the proces of cell division. 10. What is a tumor-suppressor gene? A cell that has genes that can slow down and stop cell division. Part III: Graphing Exercise Cancer can affect many different organs- some of which, such as skin, can be affected by several different types of cancer. Some types of cancer are more treatable than others. Using the information below, create a bar graph to depict the cancer rates of different types of cancer in the United States. Use one color for the type of cancer, and another color for how many deaths that particular disease caused. Be sure to label your graph! There will be TWO bars for each type of cancer- one for the number of cases, and one for the number of estimated deaths. Use two different colors in your bar graph (one for estimated cases and one for estimated deaths). Type of Cancer Estimated Cases Estimated Deaths Breast cancer Lung cancer Prostate cancer Skin (basal and squamous cell) Skin (melanoma) Colon 180,000 160,000 320,000 800,000 40,000 140,000 40,000 10,000 30,000 100,000 20,000 40,000