3 ms·

Are cancer cells distinct from other cells?

• lalaland1125 6y ago
  To a certain extent because they need to consume vast amounts of resources. It's not perfect though so it's generally assumed that every type of chemotherapy has collateral damage of some sort as regular cells also get accidentally killed.
• arrosenberg 6y ago
  For certain definitions of distinct, yes. Not as distinct as a bacteria cell vs. a human cell, so you have to be more careful selecting a target. For example, antibiotics and chemotherapy both affect cell reproduction, but antibiotics have fewer major side-effects than chemotherapy - the targets on bacteria aren't present on human cells (though they are sometimes present in the good bacteria in your gut). Chemo targets cells that use the same mechanisms as health cells, thus the side effects. Since cancers are driven by mutations at the genetic level, the goal would be to find a specific mutated site (or a combination of sites) to target that would allow specific delivery of drugs or markers or whatever. If you can find specific sites, you can design a complimentary piece of RNA code to bind it and allow the drug delivery mechanism to do it's thing. Way fewer side effects versus systemic delivery.