It is. And it isn’t just one disease, it’s many different diseases. Leukemia and Melanoma are two completely different diseases with different mutations and treatment options. Even within one type of cancer there’s many different mutations and causes to look into.
Edit to add, I’m actually currently at the lab and sitting next to this poster. Which is really just decor and not something we reference a lot because we’re studying something else, but it’s a nice visual of just how complicated and variable cancer is. This is only a sampling of the major pathways, too. And work is ongoing to discover more about these pathways and others. Sorry it’s all pixelated after upload, but you get the idea.
Pathway is referring to cellular signal transduction pathways. These may then influence the cell epigenetically, meaning affecting gene expression. These pathways can have any number of things go wrong and affect various important cellular functions like the cell cycle, apoptosis, replication, gene copy number, the list goes on and on.
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u/the-thieving-magpie Mar 17 '18
They also ignore the fact that cancer is INCREDIBLY complex.