chantelI’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Good question, chantel.
The tricky thing about cancer, is that it’s really good at spreading. It has ways of breaking down barriers that other cells couldn’t normally get through, and we call this metastasis. There are some cancers that get very large and that kill you before they spread (like a big cancer in your brain might kill you before it spreads) but brain cancer can spread. Cancers spread by getting into the blood (and lymphatic) vessels, and because all organs need blood and oxygen, cancer can spread from and to most places.
The way it spreads is one of the things that makes cancer so hard to treat and control. If we could stop it from moving, it would be much easier to treat!
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There are areas where it spreads more quickly and easily (those are the cancers that have a low success rate and that progress very quickly), and others where it takes longer. But no….cancer is pretty good at spreading eventually, regardless of where it is.
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There are different types/stages of cancer. The term “malignant” is given to cancers that can enter the blood system and travel to the rest of the body. As blood vessels go to the entire body, I don’t think there’s any particular organ where malignant cancer wouldn’t spread!
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Nicely answered folks.
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