Evolution of Tumors

By: Nahiyan Islam

Tumors are an interesting phenomenon and although external factors can be key players to contributing to it, they are never directly involved with its formation. It all happens natively within your own body from an unfortunate abnormality in the cell division of your own cells. This article will delve into the formation of tumor cells and their eventual evolution into cancerous tumor cells.

What is a Tumor?

During the process of mitosis or cell division, our dead cells are meant to be carried away to be replaced by newer cells that are built in its place. Instead, sometimes, these dead cells decide to stay behind and break the smooth flow of mitosis. When it stays behind, it can block other cells along the way and form a semi-alive layer surrounding it. This creates a lump of tissue containing a collection of dead cells inside of it, pretending to be an extra alive layer forming a sort of mutation. This abnormality in the system is what a tumor is, or also known as a benign tumor.

What is Cancer?

This lump of tissue can sometimes, break or form in a way that it's not entirely surrounded by a healthy layer of cells. This is when it's called a malignant tumor. Simply put, the dead cells are exposed to the bloodstream and can travel distances to other vital organs such as our bones, brain or liver etc. These cells don't necessarily pose a threat within our bloodstream as it requires an appropriate place with a lot of healthy cells, where it can become a new tumor and live on. So, if it is never able to locate a healthy organ, it can simply die along the way. However, as long as the main source tumor is intact, it can keep sending dead cells until they inevitably reside in other organs. This traveling of dead cells is known as metastasis and when these dead cells metastasize, they are in turn called cancer cells known to cause cancer.

Keywords: diagnosis, cancer, brain/mind, recovery, tumor