by Adria Vassel (my Health Science classmate)} - Monday, 11 July 2022, 8:33 AM, uterine sarcoma cancer


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INTRODUCTION

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   Cancers develop when there is unrestricted growth in cells and are the result of a mutation in DNA replication at the S phase of the cell cycle. All types of cancers develop when defective proteins (those having a function in cell reproduction) cause gene mutation that results in a cell becoming cancerous, these are called oncogenes (Rye et al., 2016). 

   For this week’s discussion, I will focus on uterine sarcoma; a rare cancer that I became familiar with in 2018, which my mother was diagnosed with and subsequently died from.

 Cell Types Affected By Uterine Sarcoma 

    The cell types that uterine sarcoma commonly affects are the connective tissue cells or the muscle cells (muscle wall) of the uterus. There are different categories of uterine sarcoma, and this cancer is grouped based on what cell type it affects (American Cancer Society, 2017a). 

   For example, there is uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) which affects the muscle cells in the uterus wall. This is the most common form of uterine sarcoma. Then there is endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS), which affects the connective tissue cells of the uterus lining. This is the rarest type of uterine sarcoma. Finally, undifferentiated sarcoma can affect either the connective tissue or muscle cells and can rapidly grow and spread outside the uterus (American Cancer Society, 2017b). 

 Cellular Reproduction Defect Responsible for Uterine Sarcoma 

 Uterine sarcoma is attributed to the cellular reproduction defect of the forming of malignant cells, which ultimately split and are dispersed throughout the uterus and the body (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). 

   As mentioned above, cancers develop when there is a defective protein that is imperative to cell reproduction. In the case of uterine sarcoma, this defective protein is NAC1 (nucleus accumbens-associated 1), which is a type of BTB/POZ protein (Rahman et al., 2012). Regular functioning NAC1 is responsible for preventing cell growth and stimulating apoptosis (the programmed death of a cell). However, with uterine sarcoma, too many copies of the defective NAC1 are made, and the cell cycle continues without apoptosis being stimulated (Rahman et al., 2012). This is what causes the cells to become cancerous. 

 Available Therapy for Uterine Sarcoma
Woman with cancer during chemotherapy recovering from illness (iStock-Photo)


  There are four primary ways in which uterine sarcoma can be treated. These are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and hormone therapy. Depending on the stage of cancer, doctors may use one or several of these therapies to treat patients (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). 

   Surgery (the most common treatment) is typically done to remove the cancerous tumor, or the tumor and other affected organs and tissue. Types of surgery used to treat uterine sarcoma include laparotomy, lymphadenectomy, radical hysterectomy, total hysterectomy, and total hysterectomy which also involves removing one or both fallopian tubes and/or ovaries (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). 

    Radiation therapy involves using high dosages of radiation (internally and externally) to shrink the tumor and/or kill the cancerous cells. Whereas chemotherapy involves being injected with medications that are designed to slow the growth of developing cancer cells or to kill those cells. Finally, hormone therapy works by helping to control specific functions. The downside to this final treatment is that it can cause the growth of cancer cells (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). 

 Therapy Treats the Genetic Nature of Uterine Sarcoma 

 The therapies used for the treatment of uterine sarcoma all involve killing or removing the cancerous cells in some form. For this reason, it can be concluded that these therapies treat the genetic nature of this disease. It should be noted that these therapies, particularly chemotherapy and radiation therapy, cannot treat uterine sarcoma by themselves. As such, it is suggested that gene therapy is a better cancer treatment because it will replace the defective gene with a healthy duplicate (Das et al., 2016). 

   If used, gene therapy would also treat the genetic nature of uterine sarcoma.

 Word count: 625 

 References 

 American Cancer Society. (2017a, November 20). If you have uterine sarcoma. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/uterine-sarcoma/if-you-have-uterine-sarcoma.html 

 American Cancer Society. (2017b, November 13). What is uterine sarcoma? https://www.cancer.org/cancer/uterine-sarcoma/about/what-is-uterine-sarcoma.html 

 Cleveland Clinic. (2022, January 31). Uterine sarcoma. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16408-uterine-sarcoma 

 Das, S. K., Menezes, M. E., Bhatia, S., Wang, X. Y., Emdad, L., Sarkar, D., & Fisher, P. B. (2015). Gene therapies for cancer: Strategies, challenges and successes. Journal of cellular physiology, 230(2), 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.24791 

 Rahman, M. T., Nakayama, K., Ishikawa, M., Rahman, M., Katagiri, H., Katagiri, A., Ishibashi, T., Iida, K., Yamada, T., & Miyazaki, K. (2012). NAC1, a BTB/POZ protein overexpressed in uterine sarcomas. Anticancer Research, 32(9), 3841–3845. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22993327/ 

 Rye, C., Wise, R., Jurukovski, V., DeSaix, J., Choi, J., & Avissar, Y. (2016). Biology. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/biology/pages/preface 750 words

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