Sep 13, 2016
Stiff and Oxygen-Deprived Tumors Promote Spread of Cancer
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: biotech/medical
Interesting read.
When Hippocrates first described cancer around 400 B.C., he referred to the disease’s telltale tumors as “karkinos” — the Greek word for crab. The “Father of Western Medicine” likely noted that cancer’s creeping projections mirrored certain crustaceans, and the tumors ‘ characteristic hardness resembled a crab’s armored shell.
Later, scientists added another attribute: Tumors are hypoxic. That is, they grow so large and dense that they exclude blood vessels, causing a lack of oxygen in their cores. But what role these characteristics play in the development of cancer has remained a mystery.
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