What is a apoptosis?  What causes it?  Is it helpful or harmful?
830973
Apoptosis is incredibly important.  It is a completely designed, intended form of cells to die (compared to necrosis, which is accidental death of cells).  On a very superficial level, cancer is a result of LOSING control of apoptosis.\n\nThere are 2 apoptotic mechanisms, the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways.  The extrinsic mechanism is stimulated from outside the cell (hence the nomenclature).  It involved a ligand (something called Fas-Ligand) binding to a receptor (Fas), and stimulating cell destruction by destroying DNA.  The other mechanism is the intrinsic mechanism, which is controlled from inside the cell after it has been damaged.  This involved cytochrome C release from mitochondria.  \n\nBoth pathways involve the use of CASPASE proteins that are involved in degrading DNA.
275474
Mitosis occurs to repair old cells, to create more cells for growth and development and replace cells on a regular basis\n\nThe cell will  likely lyse (die)
581459
my dad died of lung cancer.  The cancerous cells replaced the good ones and didnt do the job of the old ones.  Cancer kills because the organs affected stop working as their working cells are replaced.
570228
There's also cell apoptosis.  infected cells put out a self-destruct signal so the virus can't reproduce.  its actually what i work on, with herpes
358062
Keep in mind that necrosis is different from cell apoptosis.  \n\nApoptosis is "programmed cell death" where the cell actually will undergo extra protein synthesis in order to make the proteins for a rather organized cell death.  The cell essentially becomes a bunch of little vesicles that are eaten up by nearby phagocytic cells.  \n\nNecrosis occurs when the cell kinda falls apart.  It realeases a whole bunch of "crud" into the system that results in inflammation.  \nThere are whole protein cascades and signalling pathways that control these events.  But, in an overview, necrosis occurs in two general steps.  \n\n1. Chromatin clump up, and organelles begin to swell up.\n2. Plasma membrane breaks down, and the cell disintigrates.  The resulting debris can cause inflammation.
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It's not the "cutting" so much as the why.  Every self-mutilator I have met has said that hurt, anger sadness, any emotion gets so bad that cutting relieves the pain.  In history doctors used to try to cure diseases by "blood letting"  cutting the patient so the "bad, diseased blood" would be removed from the body.  How deep do you cut?  do you require sutures?  Most cutters are not suicidal, but sometimes accidentally kill themselves by cutting too deep or hitting an artery.  Counseling is not a bad thing, if you get the right person, but you have to want to go or it won't help you.
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My husband was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and was given an autologus stem cell transplant that sent him into remission from cancer.\n\nStem cells are master cells in your body that can form into other needed cells in your body, like muscle cells, blood cells, or brain cells.  Or, they can form more stem cells.  You can think of them like a constant repair system for your body.  \n\nIn the case of my husband, the cancer had invaded his bone marrow - this proved to be very serious since the marrow is where blood is made.  His own stem cells were harvested from his blood stream and sterilized to prevent any cancer from being saved.  An extremely high dose of chemotherapy was given to kill basically everything in his marrow.  The stem cells were then reintroduced to his body - and they went to work!  Since it's the stem cell's job to figure out what's needed to make the body function properly, it made new marrow cells!  And then he had new marrow and no cancer!\n\nThis is sort of a simplistic view, but I hope it helps!
128540
Even though our understanding of cancer has made leaps and bounds, we have still yet to find a sure-fire treatment.  This has to do with the number of cancers out there, as well as the complexity of the problem.  Cancer is the result of a number of factors, including a cells ability to ignore death signals, anti-growth signals, as well as telling itself to continuously grow.  With all these problems compounded, cancer is a harsh nemesis.
845894
Hi Karma.  Some of the other answers make valid points, but I believe this is the information you are looking for.\n\nRadiation can CAUSE cancer by several mechanisms.  One of the mechanisms is the production of high levels of 'oxidative stress'.  Oxidative stress can damage DNA, causing mutations than can contribute to the carcinogenesis process.\n\nRadiation TREATS cancer by the same mechanism - it causes oxidative stress.  Very high levels of oxidative stress in cancer cells (and healthy cells too, which is why the therapy is so toxic) induces biochemical pathways that lead to 'cell suicide' - a process called Apoptosis.\n\nIn summary, radiation can cause cancer by causing oxidative stress that damages DNA and leads to mutations.  Radiation can kill cancer cells by causing higher levels of oxidative stress that cause so much damage to the cell that the cell's 'suicide' mechanism (apoptosis) is activated and the cancer cell kills itself.  Unfortunately, this often fails as a cancer treatment because many cancer cells have mutations in their apoptotic pathways!\n\nHope this helps you understand this interesting 'paradox'.  \n\n(P.S. You asked a very good question!  It shows you are a 'thinker'!).
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helpful- get rid of diseases such as parkinsons or maybe even genetic cancer\n\nharmful- dont know the side effect...and people may use it for the wrong reasons...
889722
I am making assumptions here, I am presuming that you are talking about biology and are speaking of Reactive oxygen species and the formation of free radicals within the body.\nI hope I am correct. \nReactive oxygen species or ROS are species such as superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radical and are associated with cell damage.\n\nFree radicals are also produced inside (and also released towards the cytosol) organelles, such as the mitochondrion. Mitochondria convert energy for the cell into a usable form, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The process in which ATP is produced, called oxidative phosphorylation, inovolves the transport of protons (Hydrogen ions) across the inner mitochondrial membrane by means of the electron transport chain. In the electron transport chain, electrons are passed through a series of proteins via oxidation-reduction reactions, with each acceptor protein along the chain having a greater reduciton ppotential than the last. The last destination for an electron along this chain is an oxygen molecule. Normally the oxygen is reduced to produce water; however, in about 1-2% of all cases, the oxygen is instead reduced to give the suproxide radical,·O2-. Superoxide needs an additional electron to make it more stable, so it steals an electron from the nearest source, such as: mitochondrial DNA the mitochondrial membrane (called lipid peroxidation), or from protein, or from reductants such as Vitamins C or E, or, from non enzymatic antioxidants such as glutathione or thioredoxin. If too much damage is caused to the mitochondrion, it goes through apoptosis, or programmed cell death.\n\nBcl-2 proteins are layered on the surface of the mitochondria, detect damage, and activate a class of proteins called Bax, which punch holes in the mitochondrial membrane, causing cytochrome C to leak out. This cytochrome C binds to Apaf-1, or apoptotic protease activating factor-1, which is free-floating in the cell’s cytoplasm. Using energy from the ATPs in the mitochondrion, the Apaf-1 and cytochrome C bind together to form apoptosomes. The apoptosomes binds to and activates caspase-9, another free-floating protein. The caspase-9 then cleaves the proteins of the mitochondrial membrane, causing it to break down and start a chain reaction of protein denaturation and eventually phagocytosis of the cell.\n\nAccording to the Free Radical Theory of Aging, aging occurs (via a loss of energy producing cells) either when mitochondria begin to die out because of free radical damage or, when less functional mitochondria remain within these cells. The focus of the project is to neutralize the effect of these free radicals with antioxidants. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donating one of their own electrons. The antioxidant nutrients themselves don’t become free radicals by donating an electron because they are stable in either form.\n\nSuperoxide dismutase (SOD) is present in two places naturally in the cell. SOD that is present in the mitochondria contains manganese (MnSod). This SOD is transcribed in the nucleus and has a mitochondrial targeting sequence, thereby localizing it to the miotchondrial matrix. SOD that is present in the cytoplasm of the cell contains copper and zinc (CuZnSod). The genes that control the formation of SOD are located on chromosomes 21, 6, and 4. When superoxide dismutase comes in contact with superoxide, it reacts with it and forms hydrogen peroxide. The stoichiometry of this reaction is that for each 2 superoxide radicals encountered by SOD, 1 H2O2 is formed. This hydrogen peroxide is dangerous in the cell because it can easily transform into a hydroxyl radical (via reaction with Fe2+:Fenton chemistry), one of the most destructive free radicals. Catalase, which is concentrated in peroxisomes located next to mitochondria but formed in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and located everywhere in the cell, reacts with the hydrogen peroxide and forms water and oxygen. Glutathione peroxidase re
810506
Its a.) marker proteins.  They let the other surrounding cells know what that cell is and that it is not a forign body which should be destroyed.  Lets all be thankful for the marker proteins protecting our cells from being attacked by our own immune system.
949366
cancer is the big one, cancer cells are cells that just don't die, so they grow and reproduce take up valuable nutrients from healthy cells, crowd out healthy cells until the healthy cells die, and finally take over your body until it's systems shut down.
1088198
It's not fatal but there's no cure.  It can be managed effectively with drugs, nutritional supplements, surgery or a combination of these.  The treatment depends on the location and severity, any complications and a person's response to previous treatment.  There can be for some long remissions, sometimes years, when there are no symptoms.  Unfortunately, the disease usually recurs at various time throughout a person's lifetime.  Predicting when either a remission or a relapse will occur just isn't possible.
15002
Take a look at the websites below for more information. I can decode some of that for you. I can't tell you how serious it is...you need to find a doctor who will talk to you and explain things. \n\nLeiomyosarcoma is a rare cancer that affects smooth muscles. Low to intermediate grade is not as bad as advanced, so that part sounds positive. Focal necrosis means there is a part of the tissue sample that shows cells that are dying. I can't tell you what that means in the overall picture. The mitotic count is a measure of how many cells in the sample are dividing. HPF means high power field. I'm taking this to mean that when they looked under a high power microscope, 2-3 out of 10 cells were dividing. I can't give you a reference number for what is normal, but in general, more cells dividing would indicate the tumor is growing faster than a low number. \n\nImmunohistochemistry means staining the cells in the sample with markers to see what kind of cells they are. CD34 is a marker for undifferentiated cells. S-100 is another marker, but I can't tell you exactly what it indicates. The presence or absence of markers can mean either good or bad news, but I don't know exactly how these are used here and I don't want to guess.\n\nThat doesn't really answer your questions, because you really need a doctor who knows this case to tell you what to expect. I hope that makes it a little less mysterious, but I'm afraid it's not much help. It makes me sad to think that someone would just hand you this report and not give you some help in understanding what is going on. Sometimes hospitals have a social worker who is there to translate the medical jargon into things you really want and need to know. Ask if there is someone like this. I hope it's a good outcome. Good luck.
615452
mitosis is the process of cell division.\n\nWithout cell division there would be no reproduction of cells, therefore when a cell dies, that would be it.  Eventually all your cells would die, and you'd be dead.\n\nThis website will probably explain it better:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitosis
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Cell division (think CELL CYCLE) is regulated by an incredibly complicated series of genes/proteins and signaling. But in the simplest terms, cells have genes called "oncogenes" and "tumor supressor genes", of which the former causes cell division, and the latter stops cell division.\n\nIn all cells, both of these kinds of genes are functioning all the time, but are regulated by various pathways (by extracellular signaling, and even factors from within the cell). \n\nAn oncogene we know a lot about is called RAS, and a tumor suppressor we know a lot about is p53. Basically in cancer, and this is just two examples: (1) RAS (an oncogene) activity is unregulated, thus the cell loses control of the cell cycle and divides uncontrollably. (2) p53 activity is lost, and thus we lose "tumor suppressor" function, and the cell divides uncontrollably.\n\nThe problems with cancers are not always these genes themselves, but the pathways that regulate them (regulate their transcription for example). There are many many many different things that can upset these pathways, and thats why cancer is so so difficult to fight/prevent.