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Somehow it is strange that cancer cells do not try to propage to other organisms, given they try hard to invade their host? Is there any known reason for that (
by JPLeRouzic 10y ago
Somehow it is strange that cancer cells do not try to propage to other organisms, given they try hard to invade their host? Is there any known reason for that (absence of) behavior?
- maxerickson 10y agoI imagine a big part of it is that they kill the host pretty quickly.
- ska 10y agoSee Retric's comment and link. Short answer is, can. A more common transmission mechanism is itself a virus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncovirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncovirus) . But, remember unlike bacteria or a virus, cancer isn't typically "invading" and you aren't "hosting". It's a malfunction of your own cells resulting in unregulated growth. For the most part it isn't really something you "get", so much as a failure mode of you as a system. We do use the terminology "invasive" but not because it came from outside the body, rather that it is leaving one organ or tissue and entering another.
- yellowMoneky 10y agoThey do https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonally_transmissible_cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonally_transmissible_cancer
- Vendan 10y agoWell, it's because it's not "cancer cells" as something different then the host, it's just "here's some cells that, for whatever reason, decided to start growing and multiplying indefinitely, rather then being restricted by what their programming says". Comparatively, cancer is far "less threat" then most diseases, except for the fact that your immune system treats it like part of your body. Thanks to that "leg up", it can do a lot of damage. If your cancer got into another person, their immune system would treat it as foreign (modulo transplant factors and such), and attack and destroy it.