Edwin Smith was a noted Egyptologist who developed much of his work in the second half of the nineteenth century. Formed in the most important centers of Paris and London and acquired great importance in the study of Egyptian language. But all this would not be giving to honor and reputation but the acquisition of a papyrus from a dealer in the city of Luxor. The Egyptologist understood right away that this papyrus more than four feet in length was a medical treatise, but his surprise was great to see that what was holding was becoming in the oldest medical documents that were known in the world, with almost five thousand years old.
who has gone down in history as the Edwin Smith papyrus shows that the Egyptians had a fairly accurate knowledge of human organs such as heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, ureters and bladder, and to deal with much more rationality of them meant certain surgical procedures. The fact is that this papyrus is made up of a number of cases that were mostly traumatic injuries that were treated with surgery.
But one fact is more surprising and is still in the papyrus appears the first written description of a cancer. In this describes eight cases of breast cancer who are treated with cauterization, while the letter says the disease had "no treatment."
Since then, the cancer knowledge has grown tremendously in both the detection and treatment, although the disease remains a major cause of mortality in the West. According to the American Cancer Society, it causes about 13% of all deaths, which represents a number close to eight million deaths worldwide each year. Of these, over 90% are caused by a process called metastasis.
metastasis is known as the spread of a primary tumor to distant organs and healthy. For this to happen the cancer cells must be able to penetrate the blood or lymph vessels near the tumor to enter the bloodstream, forcing the circulatory system to produce new blood vessels through a process called angiogenesis, and invade healthy tissue. Classically speaking
benign tumor to refer to those who are not able to metastasize to distant organs and malignant tumor, which itself is capable of doing. Ie, benign tumors grow only locally and at is much simpler treatment, whereas malignant tumors are able to propagate, making it much more complex medical fight against the disease.
For metastasis to occur you have to give a series of activities grouped in what is known as metastatic cascade, which ends in the formation of a secondary tumor. This is only possible if certain molecular alterations that lead to the expression of some genes.
One of the first genes found that were related to processes of metastasis is the protein leads to "twist", which is responsible for on or off certain genes. This protein is available in developing embryo, where its function is crucial because it controls the production and migration of all tissues, but that goes away after staying away for the rest of life. Well, we have seen that a large number of tumors that metastasized recently, this protein is active. Also the English
Joan Massagué, and his team has identified a set of 18 genes involved in metastasis, of which the joint action of only four of them can trigger the process. Of the proteins that give rise to these genes were known involvement in inflammatory processes and tumor, but now also known its role in the spread of cancer.
And more recently, in December 2008, a group of British researchers published the expression of a protein called phospholipase Cγ1, which is related to the activation of certain types of lifoncitos-Th-lymphocytes, play a role in processes metastasis.
The advancement of science in this regard should awaken in us moderate illusion. It is likely that in the medium term future to know all the genes involved in cancer and use this knowledge for treatment, but that day is still on the horizon.
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