One out of every three people in the developed world will have cancer at some time in their life, and even more people are effected, since this disease also has an impact on the family and loved ones. PharmaMar is devoted to discovering and developing innovative treatments of marine origin for patients with cancer.

 

This section offers a basic educational and introductory guide to cancer, as well as information on some types of specific tumours whose treatment with drugs under research in PharmaMar are being studied in clinical trials.

Cancer develops from a single cell which has undergone mutations in its deoxyribonucleic acid, known by the acronym DNA, the genetic material constituting the essential instructions for the development of the organism. Instead of completing the normal cell cycle, in other words, maturing and dying, the cancerous cells divide uncontrollably and do not mature.

 

The phenomenon may occur in any part of the organism, even the blood and blood-forming organs. In this latter case, solid tumours are not formed. Instead the cancer circulates through the body.

 

Uncontrolled multiplication of cells leads to a tissue mass: tumours They usually receive their name depending on the tissue or organ in which they originate (e.g. breast cancer) or, in some cases, by the type of cells formed (e.g. leukaemia, basal cell carcinoma).

 

Two major types of tumour are considered: benign, which are usually easily cured, and malignant tumours, which represent a greater health risk.

 

In a benign, or non-cancerous, tumour, the tumour cells remain in the area where the abnormal growth originated. Benign tumours seldom reappear once they have been completely eliminated. The usual treatment consists of removing them by surgery.

 

Malignant tumours are formed by cancerous cells which have the capacity of abandoning the “primary” site of tumour growth and spreading to surrounding organs or to distant tissues of the body. In this situation, the cancer cells separate from the original tumour and travel via the blood or the lymph vessels to areas of the body away from the initial tumour area. There, they start to grow and replace the normal tissue forming new tumours called metastases, or secondary tumours.

 

Each type of cancer behaves differently as regards its growth, response to treatment and the probability and prospects for survival.

 

Between 5% and 10% of all cancers are due to a defect in various individual genes. These cancers are hereditary and occur in members of the same family. Approximately 20% of cancers are associated with chronic infections such as those caused by the hepatitis virus, Helicobacter pylori, or the human papilloma virus. However, in the vast majority of cases, tumours are due to causes which are much more complicated and heterogeneous.

It is considered that in most cases a series of cumulative genetic changes, which occur according to a sequence, favours the appearance and progression of the tumour. During our lives we accumulate lesions in our genes (mutations). When a number of factors arises simultaneously these mutations interfere in the cell's normal function and turn a healthy cell into a cancerous cell, which grows uncontrollably.

 

Some lifestyle factors are increasingly regarded as the main causes of cancer. These factors include smoking, exposure to work-related carcinogens, UV light, ionising radiation and the Western diet. Likewise, exercising regularly and adopting a healthy diet seem to have the opposite effect.