We all have cells in our bodies. Most of them are good guys, doing their jobs to keep us healthy. But sometimes, bad guys show up.
These bad guys are cells that may become cancer one day.
Some smart scientists at Stanford Medicine found that these bad guys start causing trouble way before they become cancer.
The scientists studied these bad guys closely. They discovered that these cells start to change and act up before we can see or feel any problems.
These changes usually have to do with how the cell splits and grows, or how it communicates with other cells.
Watching the Bad Guys Grow Up
It’s like watching a kid who’s about to get into trouble. First, they might break a small rule. Then, they might get bolder and do something worse.
It’s a pattern, and it often happens in the same order. The same thing happens with these bad guy cells. They start small but get more and more messed up as time goes on.
The scientists watched these cells for two years. They noticed that these bad guy cells changed in the same ways over and over again, like they were following a bad guy rule book.
The Bad Guys’ Favorite Tricks
The scientists found that these bad guys loved to mess with the cell’s division rules. It’s like a cell’s rule book on how and when it should split into two.
The bad guys also love to mess with the cell’s structure and the way it talks to other cells.
Even though these bad guys were causing trouble, they still looked like normal cells under a microscope. The scientists only knew they were bad guys because of their behavior.
Stopping the Bad Guys in Their Tracks
This study gives us a sneak peek into how bad guys become cancer. It’s like having a secret playbook of the other team in a football game. Knowing their plays, we can stop them before they score.
So, the big question is: can we stop these bad guys from turning into cancer? The scientists think it’s possible.
They’re hoping to try this study with different types of cells and see if they can learn more about the bad guys’ tricks. The more we know, the better chance we have to stop them.
Bad Guys Are Everywhere
These bad guys aren’t just in our stomachs. They can be in other parts of our bodies, too. The scientists want to see how these bad guys act in different places.
They also want to see if things like inflammation can help these bad guys become cancer.
Other smart people from Karolinska Institutet, the University College London, and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub helped with this study.
They’re all working together to understand these bad guys and find a way to stop them. After all, no one wants bad guys turning into cancer. We’re all rooting for the good guys to win.
If you care about cancer, please see recent studies about new ways to increase the longevity of cancer survivors, and results showing new ways to supercharge cancer-fighting T cells.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing that vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
The study was published in Nature. Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
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