Blog
Post
Kathryn
Oram
11/28/2016
Radiation Damages DNA & Causes Cancer
Cancer
Research is an ongoing study for microbiology, a cure hasn’t been found yet but
scientific developments are paving the way to find a cure for different types
of cancer. In medical now, Patients that are diagnosed with server cancer is
usually put through the treatment of radiation. Most people know that already
but, new developments in the late summer of 2016 are now showing how radiation
treatment damages the DNA inside the cells and may even be causing cancer
tumors.
Radiation
treatment is when large amounts of radiation, such as gamma rays, X-rays, and
radioactive particles, are exposited to the body to help stop the replication
of cancer cells. Although the radiation showers are breaking up the genome
causing overwhelming damage to the DNA. Researchers from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators
have now been able to spot two characteristic patterns in DNA that has been
destroyed by ionising radiation. Everytime that a DNA molecule is damaged it
leaves a molecular fingerprint, on the cancer cell. Deletion and balanced
inversion are the two of molecular fingerprints that have been recently discovered.
The mutational signature deletion is when small numbers of DNA sequences are
cut out. The other Multinational signature is referred to as a balanced
inversion, is when the DNA molecule is cut, flipped around, and rejoined to the
same DNA sequence. Discovering these two molecular fingerprints patterns is not
making it able for doctors to see if and which tumors can be caused by the
radiation treatment.
The article I read makes me happy to know that there are scientific
strides are being made in the fight against cancer. I learned a lot of new
information in this article about current science and medical field studies.
From reading this article I also now understand why individual may choose not
to do radiation treatment since it is still a section of science that is still
being tested and studied. htp://www.biologynews.net/archives/2016/09/12/study_reveals_how_ionising_radiation_damages_dna_and_causes_cancer.html">Study
reveals how ionising radiation damages DNA and causes cancer
This is really interesting. After I graduate, I plan on becoming a nuclear pharmacist, where we essentially make radioactive drugs for things such as MRI and PET scans. These help to find and track down tumors and other normally unseen problems. It's too bad that some of our best methods of finding and killing cancer can also be harmful. -J Woods
ReplyDeleteI think this article is really amazing because it is helping people to become aware of the dangers of radiation. Looking beyond the medical field I have always tried to avoid radiation even in small amounts. Such as television, airport scanners, microwaves, cigarette smoke, or even just making sure that a cellphone is not under my pillow when I am sleeping. I think this article can raise the question of what are everyday appliances that emit radiation are doing to our health over time.
ReplyDelete-S.R
This is an amazing article and i found it very interesting how you look at its results, as a person with family members with cancer it is great to know that strides and progress are still being made to fight this disease and make lives better for everyone.
ReplyDelete-Jacob C
I thought you gave a good explanation of how radiation therapy is supposed to work and what the dangers are that are associated with it. I believe that a better understanding of how DNA and cell replication work can help people make more informed decisions on whether to use radiation treatment or not (basically, everyone should be required to take Biol 1610). If you don't understand these principles, then you really don't understand what you are agreeing to when you go through radiation therapy.
ReplyDelete-B.G.
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ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome article about radiation therapy. I feel like when we go into the doctor and they recommend something, we often don't look at the side effects of the treatments. After taking BIOL1610, I understand the DNA mutation that is occurring, but for someone that hasn't taken this class, it would be foreign to them. In the future, it would be great to learn specifically which types of cancer comes from radiation.
ReplyDelete-NP
This article was interesting to read and I never really understood the bad effects radiation therapy can have on cancer patients. Similar to another article I read, which stated how scientist could now fix mutated DNA by removing the inversions and deletions through a process called CRISPR. Once mutated DNA is removed they replaced it with a new RNA template. This was done in rats and hopefully one day could be used to cure cancer with no side effects.
ReplyDeleteJH
How could this tie into self tanning. Or the tanning beds that people go to? Are those also a cause of UV radiation?
ReplyDeleteB.C.
It's interesting to me that doctors and scientists are confident that the majority of the radiation treatment will kill cells and not cause new cancers, yet they will scatter at the first sign of an X-ray. How dangerous is it really?
ReplyDelete-BG
how much radiation would cause the Deletion and balanced inversion to occur? are we talking like an "over time" or "a lot of exposer at once?" sb
ReplyDelete