Thanks to Imagine Dragons. They inspired me to wrote this article :) I heard one of their song in youtube. They made a special concert for Tyler Robinson who suffer with Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer. I've never heard this cancer before. That's the 1st time I read about that cancer :)
What is Rhabdomyosarcoma
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a highly malignant aggressive form of soft tissue cancer in children , the cause of which is currently unknown. Although the fibrous growth can be found throughout the body they generally evolve around , bladder neck head , and testicles of young boys . The most common age for on- set is between 1-5 years . The treatment used is usually chemotherapy using a combination of drugs , radiotherapy and surgery and although quite effective ( 66 % success rate at this time ) , side affects commonly experienced by young patients is very unpleasant and the whole process can prove to be very traumatic not only for the patient but for the family too . So there is a need for better ways to treat the disease . Currently cocktail of drugs administered through the chemotherapy is not selective for cancer cells and so they also attack healthy cells . In order for treatment to be effective without causing unnecessary tissue damage , researchers have been looking for a way to specifically target cancer cells in order to provide a therapeutic agent that will kill the tumor . Identifying cancer stem cells and genetic programs underlying the evolutionarily conserved self-renewal in ERMS will likely lead to new insights into how to destroy these cell types in established malignancies . Rhabdomyosarcoma ( RMS ) is an aggressive cancer that arises from primitive skeletal muscle cell called " rhabdomyoblast " . Depending on the histology of the cancer cells , there are several different sub types of RMS . embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma ( ERMS ) is the most common sub type , usually found in children under 15 , in the head and neck region and genitourinary tract . Dr. Zon and colleagues have developed an animal model to identify and test therapeutic targets of human ERMS . The scientists artificially activated the RAS pathways to induce ERMS in a strain of genetically engineered zebra fish . Some transgenic zebrafish developed visible tumors by 10 days of age . Through their model , Dr. Zon and colleagues were able to identify both an ERMS tumor - cell - of- origin and a novel genetic signature that underlies ERMS development in zebrafish and human patients . Cancer stem cells make up only a small fraction of the total number of cells in a tumor . However , they are capable of giving rise to other cancer cells , and thereby promote tumor growth and metastasis . To prevent recurrence and progression , effective long -term therapy should be the target population of self-renewing cancer stem cells . The zebrafish is suitable for use in chemical genetics approach targets to disable specific cancer pathways we have identified in our study . Identifying drugs that are not activated pathways in the ERMS cancer stem cells may have far reaching implications for the treatment of patients with this disease .
Cause of Rhabdomyosarcoma
The exact cause of this cancer remains uncertain by a team of medical and health research. Research on the exact cause of this disease is still underway and will continue to evolve over time. Children who have a genetic abnormality, either deficiency or excess of a particular gene are more at risk of developing cancer is greater.
Characteristics of Rhabdomyosarcoma Cancer
Diagnosis and determination , as well as comparison of characteristics of emerging hallmark of cancer can be seen from the 4 stages of tumor progression and become cancerous and cancerous changes based on his stage , here are 3 characteristics of cancers differentiate into :
- Cancer difference or differentiation ( Differential ) and anaplasia Cancer
- The rate ( speed ) growth and development of disease Cancer
- Attack and his stricken areas of the body by Tumor and Cancer
1 . Differential and anaplasia Cancer
Differentiation means is defined as a measure of the extent to which cells - cancer cells are morphologically and functionally resemble precursors of cancer . Differentiation and anaplasia in cancer only occurs in parenchymal tissues and does not occur in the body tissue stroma . The stroma is an important part in supplying blood to the cells - cancer cells but does not have a meaningful role in the differentiation between benign cancer and malignant cancer cells . However stromal network that determines the consistency and the presence of a cancer . Cancer stroma has a hard and dense fibrous stroma and abundant called scirrhous stroma . Benign cancer composed of cells - cells that are different but are similar to the mitotic cell and normal cell awkward and rarely there . Malignant cells have a variety of well-differentiated parenchymal differentiation to actually ter - un - differentiation . More and more in the differentiation , the ability of the cells would be to perform its normal function . Cancer is a malignant cancer that is composed of cells - undifferentiated cells known as anaplasia . Hallmark anaplasia is the most vicious . Anaplasia is a term that literally means " before the retreat " or in the original language referred to as " backward before " which means a loss of structural and functional differentiation of normal cells . Anaplasia have a good and marked pleomorphism ( " pleomorphism " which means that there are marked variations in the size and shape of the cell shape ) . Cells showed the following features and characteristics as follows :
* Mitosis lot and atypical ,
* The core in this case is hyperchromic nuclei ,
* The ratio of the nucleus to the cytoplasm to be the same ie 1:1
* Giant cells form larger,
* Mon anaplastic have lots and odd shaped .
Dyslasia is a term referred to as a loss in individual cell uniformity in their architectural orientation . When dysplastic cells involve the entire thickness of the epithelial tissue called carcinoma in which the pre-cancerous stage become invasive . Dysplastic changes are often found adjacent to the focal distance of the malignant cells but dysplasia is not always develop into cancer , but there was a possibility to develop into cancer and tumors .
2 . Rapid Growth of Cancer:
Most cancers grow faster and eventually spread to the surrounding tissues and metastasize and thus cause of death in cancer patients . Tumors grew more slowly than tumors Benign leiomyoma of the uterus grows faster due to increased levels of estrogen . The rate of growth of malignant cancer depends on the level of differentiation . A clinically detectable cancers contain heterogeneous populations of cells , which are derived from a single clonal cells .
3 . Body area attacked by cancer :
A benign tumors remain localized at the site ( the area of the body ) origin , the cancer does not invade , infiltrate , or metastasize to distant sites such as malignant cancer , tumors benign packaged . Capsule is derived from the stromal tissue of cancer patients . Growing malignant cancer with progressive infiltration , invasion , destruction and penetration of the surrounding body tissue . Local invasion is a hallmark of cancer most important distinguishing between benign cancer and malignant cancer .
Symptom of Rhabdomyosarcoma
Symptoms and signs of cancer Rhabdomyosarcoma depends on the body part affected by cancer, different reactions may also arise based on the long-term effects of the cancer attack.
-Cancer Rhabdomyosarcoma attacking the head, there will be a blockage of blood circulation in the head, so it will often feel pain and pain on his head and is accompanied by swelling and the emergence of small protrusions such as ulcers.
-Tumor Rhabdomyosarcoma Cancer attacks the stomach, the stomach will often painful and often experience problems related to the abdomen.
-Tumor Rhabdomyosarcoma is a bladder attack, you will often feel pain and pain accompanied with blood coming out accompanied by urine.
Treatment of Rhabdomyosarcoma
There are three ways that are often performed for patients Rhabdomyosarcoma rescue efforts , namely :
- Operation
With a wide range of possibilities , the operation is expected to lift the entire tumor and cancer Rhabdomyosarcoma that attack the patient's body . Surgical removal is done coupled with other treatments , such as drug consumption , and so on .
- Chemotherapy
If the tumor / cancer can not be removed and restored with methods of operation , then other actions that can be done is the destruction of cancer with chemotherapy . The recommended ratio is 3 weeks. Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is done by using an anti - cancer ( cytosic / cytoxic ) , which serves to shrink and turn off cancer gradually and slowly . The method can also be performed chemotherapy to destroy the cancer directly , although the only way to succeed in most conditions and stages of cancer there .
- Radiotherapy
If both methods such as Methods of Operations and Methods Chemotherapy has been done , but it has not yielded maximum results , then the last way to do is by the method of radiotherapy . Radiotherapy method is implemented by emitting a beam of radiation with a high level that can destroy ( kill ) cancer / tumors that develop in the patient's body . Even so , the level of success still depends on the level of the cancer that has been achieved ( the stage ) , in addition to the high radiation emission can also endanger the patient's life , so this method should be done with caution .
