arsanatomica: This is a large 8ft boa with advanced osteosarcoma, or bone cancer….about 3 fee
arsanatomica: This is a large 8ft boa with advanced osteosarcoma, or bone cancer….about 3 feet of his spine was completely fused with large bony tumors. Cancer cells are less specialized and lack the structural integrity of the tissues they invade. Simply put, cancer cells are good at growing really fast, but are terrible at doing what they were originally supposed to be doing. Case in point. Bone is pretty strong, but when bone cells become cancerous they become less good at holding together and a lot better at growing fast. This means that when they invade into an area of healthy bone , it weakens the bone so that it becomes prone to breaks. When the bone does break , the tissue that grows back isn’t healthy bone, but the cancerous bone, which is then even more prone to breaks. This repeated cycle of breaking and regrowth then causes large masses of bone growth, like the huge patch you see on the ribs there. In the photos above the spinal column is completely stripped of flesh. The large patches of aberrant growth are made entirely of bone. -- source link
#anatomy#cancer#science