What is a Tumor?

Tumor refers to the neogrowth formed by the body's local tissue proliferation under the action of various tumorigenic factors, because this new organism is mostly occupying mass-shaped protrusions, also known as neoplasm .

Basic Information

English name

tumor

Visiting department

Oncology

Common locations

whole body

Contagious

no

Tumor classification

According to the cell characteristics of new organisms and the degree of harm to the body, tumors are divided into two categories: benign tumors and malignant tumors. Malignant tumors can be divided into cancers and sarcomas. Cancer refers to malignant tumors derived from epithelial tissue. Sarcoma refers to mesenchymal tissue, including fibrous connective tissue, fat, muscle, vasculature, bone and cartilage tissue, and other malignant tumors. For example, malignant tumors formed by the large intestinal mucosa are called large intestinal mucosal epithelial cancer, referred to as colorectal cancer. Skin epithelium is called skin epithelial cancer, referred to as skin cancer for short. Therefore, if the doctor says that someone has cancer, it means that the patient has a malignant tumor; if the doctor says that someone has stomach cancer, it means that the patient has cancer formed by the gastric mucosal epithelium, if the patient has stomach Sarcoma indicates that this malignant tumor is not formed by mucosal epithelial cells, it may be caused by malignant transformation of smooth muscle cells, or malignant lymphoma belonging to the stomach. But it can also be said in general that he has cancer.

Leukemia is a malignant tumor of the blood system, so it is commonly called blood cancer. It is formed by diffuse malignant growth of certain types of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow, replacing normal bone marrow tissue and entering the blood. Because a large number of such tumorous leukocytes appear in the patient's blood, causing the blood to show a chyloid color characteristic, it is called leukemia. In fact, the disease name does not reflect the biological classification of its cancer cells. In the vast majority of cases, the number of white blood cells is significantly increased, but sometimes it can be normal or even reduced. According to the type of leukemia cells, it can be divided into three types: granulocyte type, lymphocyte type, and monocyte type. In addition, as mentioned above, doctors divide tumors into two categories, malignant and benign, based on the pathological morphology, growth pattern, and degree of harm to the patient. The main differences between them are as follows:

The main differences between benign and malignant tumors

Benign tumor	Malignant tumor (cancer)
Slow growth Enveloped, swells and slides when touched Clear boundary No metastasis, generally good prognosis Symptoms of local compression, generally no systemic symptoms Usually does not cause patient death	Rapid growth Aggressive growth, adhesion to surrounding tissues, Cannot be touched Ill-defined border Prone to metastasis and relapse after treatment Early low fever, poor appetite, Weight loss and severe symptoms in the later stages Thinness, anemia, fever, etc. If not treated in time, often leads to death

Because benign tumors and malignant tumors not only have different clinical manifestations, but more importantly, the prognosis (the final outcome of the patient) is different, so if you find a mass in the body and the above symptoms, you should seek medical treatment.

Oncology Research

In 2019, Cancer Cell recently published an article where researchers found that metformin use in fasting could significantly inhibit tumor growth and suggested that the PP2A-GSK3-MCL-1 pathway may be a new target for tumor treatment.

Studies have shown that calorie restriction leads to insufficient energy supply, which reduces the body's metabolism and so on, and exerts anti-cancer effects. The study found that intermittent fasting can not only regulate the metabolism in the body and increase the effect of chemotherapy, but also protect patients from the toxic and side effects of chemotherapy and help clinical treatment. In addition, researchers combined intermittent fasting with metformin and explored the therapeutic potential of tumors.
The researchers divided experimental mice inoculated with human colon cancer cells into five groups, two of which were fed for 24 hours, and the other three were intermittently fasted on a 24-hour cycle. The normal feeding group and the intermittent fasting group were treated with metformin or placebo, respectively. The results of the study found that metformin significantly inhibited tumor growth only during treatment of fasting-induced hypoglycemia. In addition, the researchers found that tumor cells are sensitive to metformin only in a low-sugar environment, suggesting that metformin will act as an anti-tumor in a low-sugar environment.

Under low glucose / metformin treatment, glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is over-activated in cells and promotes apoptosis. After inhibiting this enzyme, the effect of low glucose / metformin on tumor growth is reduced. Further mechanistic studies found that the synergistic antitumor effect of the metformin / hypoglycemic combination is mediated by the activation of glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) downstream of PP2A, leading to a decrease in the expression of pro-survivin MCL-1 and cell death in tumor cells. The specific activation of the PP2A-GSK3 axis is the sum of metformin-induced CIP2A inhibition. The PP2A inhibitor and the PP2A regulatory subunit B56 are up-regulated by low glucose, resulting in the PP2A-B56 complex with high affinity activity.
The results of this study indicate that the discovery of the PP2A-GSK3-MCL-1 pathway may be a target for the treatment of tumors, but the safety of metformin / low glucose combined therapy in patients needs further experimental verification. ^[1]