Why would you want to control apoptosis in cancer?

Question

Why would you want to control apoptosis in cancer?
Why would you want to control apoptosis in strokes?

i have this web site but i cant seem to find the answer can someone help me?
thanks
http://www.cellsalive.com/

Answer 1

Hi Daisy. The first two answerers offer interesting perspectives. Here's mine.

First, apoptosis is a critical process in the prevention of cancer. Anytime a cell tries to replicate itself inspite of significant DNA damage, the cell (not the body as one answerer suggested) should recognize the problem (tumor suppressor p53 does play a major role in this process) and if the cell cannot repair the damage, it should instigate programmed cell death (apoptosis).

So, in the prevention of cancer, it would be nice to be able to 'control' apoptosis in the context of ensuring that it always works when it needs to. Failure of apoptosis is a key component in the process of carcinogenesis.

Once cancer cells are present and the tumor has become clinically obvious, it would be nice to be able to control apoptosis (basically, reinstate its function) so that the cancer cells could kill themselves. Many forms of cancer treatment actually try to induce apoptosis in the cancer cells. Unfortunately, the treatment is usually non-selective, and therefore, induces apoptosis of healthy cells too. This contributes to many of the side effects associated with cancer treatment. One of the major reasons treatment fails is because it fails to induce apoptosis. The cancer cells often have lost their apoptotic pathways, so they may not be able to respond to treatment by inducing cell suicide - even with very toxic treatments.

With strokes, the sudden release of massive amounts of toxic contents from the damaged/dead brain cells causes a 'spreading effect' of cell damage. As neighboring cells become poisoned they can die rapidly and toxically (to other neighboring cells) via Necrosis. Apoptosis is preferable to necrosis because apoptosis results in minimal damage to adjacent cells. So, with stroke, if a treatment could cause injured cells to die via apoptosis, rather than by necrosis, in this case apoptosis would be a better process.

Hope this is helpful for you. Best wishes and good luck.

Answer 2

Cancer, by definition is uncontrolled cell growth. Apoptosis is the control mechanism that would normally cause the cell to self destruct. Although the body has several apostolic pathways designed to eliminate malignant cells, the mutations that occur in cancer cells frequently render them ineffective. Thus, therapies that may induce apoptosis in cancer cells have potential for treating a variety of cancer cells. I am not aware of any use or relevance to the study, control or treatment for CVA (strokes).

Answer 3

Apoptosis is programmed cell death where the body is telling the cell to die. A lot of times, cancers disable p53 pathways which are use in inducing apoptosis and therefore causes the cells which are supposed to die to continue proliferating and you get a cancer.

Answer 4

You wouldn't want to control apoptosis in cancer. If apoptotic mechanisms were working correctly, there wouldn't be the "always on" proliferation that is seen in cancer resulting in the abnormal proliferation of cells.

Answer 5

Because you want to kill the bad, mutated cells but leave the good normal cells.