How do pathologists tell where a cancer is migrating from in the body?
skahhh asked:
How do they know that it comes from a particular organ if it is in the lymph nodes? Does each type of cancer have a cancer print? Is there a machine that can detect this?
How do they know that it comes from a particular organ if it is in the lymph nodes? Does each type of cancer have a cancer print? Is there a machine that can detect this?
Size, shape and characteristics of the call can help in determining origin. Microscopes are a pathologists machine.
The cancer cells that have migrated will still have the characteristics of the site from which they migrated, and a cancer cell from a liver, for instance, does not look like a cancer cell from the lungs.
they can usually identify the type of cancer cell (for example – breast, bone, skin), and typically the origin of the cancer is obvious after radiologic imaging and biopsy. Cat Scans, MRIs and Nuclear Medicin techniques can locate cancer in different areas of the body as well as confirmatory biopsy.
Each type of malignancy has an original tissue which has its own cellular characteristics that are well known by a pathologist.
Usually cancer from an organ shows typical characteristics that a pathologist can recognize under the microscope.
cell structure
Not sure. But here is some encouraging latest news:
US scientists crack entire genetic code of breast and colon cancers
Research on cancer and the genetic code looks like it may at long last produce real breakthroughs
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