Question

You are an oncologist required to treat a solid tumour. Outline steps on how you would use your knowledge of cell cycling to achieve this.

Answer 1

Tumors are developed by uncontrollable division of cells and continuous cellcylce without termination. So, the treatment should be aimed at arresting the cellcycle in cancerous cells of a tumor. Chemotherapeutic drugs that arrest the cell cycle mainly the S phase targeting the DNA replication is useful to arrest the tumor growth. Moreover, the solid tumors require rich blood supply. For this, the cells tumor induce angiogenesis or formation of blood vessels. Drugs targeting the process of angiogenesis and microvascular supply are given. These drugs prevent formation of new blood vessels and also inhibit the microvascular system of tumor. This results in devoid of oxygen and nutrition supply to tumors and tumor cells undergo death. Chemotherpy regulates the cell cycle by arresting cells at various stages. Tumor cells are resulted due to formation of new cells from stem cells. Differentiation of cells from stem cells result in various mutations. Therefore, subsequent radiation therapy along with chemotherapy is required. the radiation therapy prevent the accumulation of mutations and also destructs the cellular DNA. therefore, solid tumors are treated by coordination of chemo and radiation therapy effectively.