YOUR CANCER YOUR LIFE – INABILITY TO DIFFERENTIATE NORMALLY (DIFFERENT TYPES OF CANCER)
There are a great many different types of cancer. Each of the many different types of normal cells in our bodies can give rise to a cancerous growth under certain circumstances. Cancers start more often in cells which frequently replace themselves than in cells which are very stable. When we study a specimen from a cancer under the microscope we find that the cells look quite different from the normal mature cells of the organ in which the growth began. The cancer cells are bigger, and less differentiated. As you would expect from their appearance, these cells are useless. They are not capable of carrying out the special functions of the cells from which they started.
Some cancer cells are so undifferentiated that it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the pathologist to work out where in the body they originated. It is important to establish the origin of a cancer as this tells us how it is likely to behave and what treatment is likely to work against it. Therefore, the pathologist must study specimens from poorly-differentiated cancers very carefully. To establish where it started, he or she tries to find traces of the more specialised structures which occur in normal mature cells. Sometimes special techniques are used on the specimen to make such traces apparent.
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