Peritoneal cancer

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A cell that degenerates into a tumor cell does usually not acquire all these properties at once, but its daughter cells are selected to build them. This process is called cellular evolution. A first step in the development of a tumor cell is usually a small change in the DNA, often a point mutation, which leads, among other things, to a genetic instability of the cell. The instability increases to a point where the cell loses whole chromosomes, or has double ones. Also, the DNA methylation pattern of the cell changes, activating and deactivating genes more or less at random. Cells that divide at a high rate, such as stem cells, show a higher risk of becoming tumor cells than those which divide less or not at all, for example neurons. If the initial tumor cell (or group of tumor cells) is not removed by the immune system, it will develop into cancer.

For most of the cancers, it cannot be told which event was the initial cause. However, with molecular biology, it is possible to characterize the mutations within a tumor, and to a certain extent predict its behavior. For example, about half of the tumors are deficient in the tumor suppressor gene p53, also known as "the guardian of the genome". This is associated with poor prospects for the patient, since those tumor cells are unlikely to go into apoptosis (programmed cell death) after they are damaged by therapy. There are more mutations that make a tumor more malignant. Telomerase mutations enable a tumor cell to divide indefinitely. Other mutations enable the tumor to grow new blood vessels to feed it, or to detach from the surrounding tissue, spreading to other parts of the body.

Malignant tumors such as carcinoma or sarcoma, lymphoma or leukemia originate from a cell or a group of cells in a multicellular organism that has several distinct properties:

evading apoptosis
Unlimited Growth Potential
self-sufficiency of growth factors
insensitivity to anti-growth factors
increased cell division rate
altered differentiation (specialization) ability
no ability for contact inhibition
ability to invade neighbouring tissue
ability to build metastases
ability to promote blood vessel growth (angiogenesis)

Conversations In Care
Explores the challenges surrounding physician and patient communications in cancer.
Oncology Interactive Education Series
Commercial audio-visual educational resources for patients.
CancerDirect
Patient consultation service offering treatment advice, online second opinions and oncologist referral for individual disease.
Cancer Network.com
Information resource aimed at health professionals. Requires registration.
Cancer Matters
Contains information, treatment options, and resources on a range of cancers. Also includes links to general resources, and a directory of services and resources located in a number of US cities.

Peritoneal cancer