Question

After listening to a podcast on metastasis, two BIOL 476 students are arguing about secondary site selection for tumor cells. While one student argues that the tumor cell selects the secondary site by choice, the other argues that it is decided out of compulsion. The students get into a heated discussion and you think that the only way calm these students is to provide rationale for both arguments. Discuss what you would say and why. (2x3=6 points)

Answer 1

There are two types of tumor cells:-Benign (Non-cancerous) tumors and Malignant (Cancerous) tumors.

A benign tumor is composed of cells that will not invade any other unrelated organs or tissues in the  body, but  it may continue to grow in size abnormally.

A malignant tumor is composed of cells that can invade the basement membrane and spread to other parts of the body. This can occur either by direct extension to neighboring organs or tissues or by metastasizing to distant sites by means of the the blood stream, the lymphatic system,or implantation of cancer cells in body cavities.

In the metastasis, cancer cells break away from where they are first formed (called as primary cancer), and they travel through the blood or lymph system, and form new tumors (called as metastatic tumors) in other parts of the body.