New organ discovered in human body may explain spread of cancer

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Daily News

Scientists believe they may have discovered a new organ in the human body that could provide insight on cancer and other major diseases.

For centuries, experts and doctors thought layers of cells lining the digestive tract, lungs, arteries, veins and muscles were simply a wall of dense connective tissue. But a study published in Scientific Reports Tuesday instead identifies them as an inter-connected “highway” of fluid-filled channels scientists have dubbed the “interstitium.”

Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center Drs. David Carr-Locke and Petros Benias made the discovery while investigating a patient's bile duct for cancer.

If it’s confirmed to be an organ — or a group of tissues with a unique structure performing a specific task — it would take the skin’s place as the largest organ in the human body.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/new-organ-discovered-human-body-explain-spread-cancer-article-1.3901092

[rurallib]

1. just reading about this

this could really open some new horizons and thinking on the body.

[Nitram]

2. This is huge! Hiding in plain sight all along.

Scientists are just as likely as anybody to get stuck in the trap of perpetuating false assumptions that seem like common sense.

[Aristus]

8. There's a muscle in the face that wasn't discovered until 1996.

It's small, and obscured by much larger muscles, which may explain why discovery took so long.

[Nitram]

10. It was only fairly recently that scientist discovered that the commonly used "map" of taste on the

tongue turned out to be completely wrong and based on work that had already been discredited.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/neat-and-tidy-map-tastes-tongue-you-learned-school-all-wrong-180963407/

[Grammy23]

11. Yes, like continuing to tell us that a low fat, high carb diet is the way

to better health. The evidence is all around us in higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many other disorders that what we’ve been feeding ourselves for the last 50 years is not working for us and, in fact, is working AGAINST us.

As a soon to be 28 year survivor of breast cancer, I hope the scientists are on to something new that could make cancer a thing of the past. As we look back on the medieval medical practitioners and shake our heads in disbelief at the things they did to try to defeat diseases, I am sure future generations will wonder about our naïveté at how the body works and how things can spiral out of control to death. The quest for knowledge goes on and will continue to go on as we try to unlock the mysteries of life.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. I've heard of interstitial fibrosis

Someone told me it took a friend when it surrounded his heart, though don't quote me, it was a secondhand description.

[volstork]

4. The interstitium

really isn't new-- it was identified decades ago (think "interstitial cystitis" and other ailments). What IS unique is the consideration that it may be a single functional organ in and of itself. It will be interesting to see what might be discovered when thinking about it in this new way.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. Yes, I recall, "interstitial fluid", from my physiology class...

... and it has always occurred to me that it was not given enough credit for spreading, "anti-oxidants"? in the thorax region, between the organs. I guess I SHOULD have gone to med school.

[getagrip_already]

6. hmm, I remember intestinal fluid after a bad night in tijuana... n/t

[volstork]

7. I think that's a totally different animal!

[ailsagirl]

9. Wow!

Thanks for posting!