Cancer Cells

(Gaffin, p.152).” Apoptosis is a type of cell death that is a normal part of development.

Cancer happens when cells begin to divide more rapidly than the cell from which they

came from, and continue doing so. The cells are able to grow due to mitosis, which is a

form of cell division that enables an organism to grow by adding cells.

A cancerous cell obtains oxygen and nutrients from surrounding blood vessels by

diffusion across its membrane, in the same way as normal cells. As the tumor enlarges, its

inner cells are starved of nutrients. Enlarging tumors use two methods of acquiring

nutrients, by invading existing blood vessels and by angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the

process by which a tumor stimulates new blood vessels to form. Cancer induced

angiogenesis builds the cancer cells own blood supply.

Since proteins control the cell cycle, and genes encode proteins, genes play a major

role in causing cancer. There are two major classes of genes that contribute to causing

cancer; the oncogenes and the tumor suppressor genes.

Oncogenes are versions of genes that normally trigger cell division, but they are

. . .
Tumors form because of the lack of contact inhibition. A cancers growth rate depends upon the type of cell affected. They are very cautious when doing any type of surgery or

biopsy because of the knowledge they have on how cancer can spread. The liver is the particularly common site since

it receives blood from the heart and the intestines. Some of these routes are

metastasis, local invasion, and implantation or inoculation. Tumors often form in epithelial

tissue, which covers the body and lines body cavities and organs. This type of cancer is very curable, because once the wide area of healthy

tissue surrounding the cancer is removed the doctors don’t have to worry about it

spreading; this takes place in the metastasis process. Inactivation or removal of the

tumor suppressor gene can cause cancer. Even the speediest cancer cells,

which complete a cell cycle every 18-24 hours, do not divide as often as some normal

human embryo cells. ”

Cancer can also spread through what is known as local invasion. The reason for this is that your genes will suffer

damage just from day to day living. As expressed

throughout our research you can easily see how powerful cancer really is, by their

determined nature to strive for survival. Meanwhile, as a cancer spreads, it mutates, and the treatment that shrank

the original tumor may have no effect on this secondary growth (Anderson, p. Cancer cells have the ability to

squeeze into or invade any available space because of their surface structures.

Common topics in this essay:
, cancer cells, tumor suppressor, cell division, cell cycle, blood vessels, suppressor gene, tumor suppressor gene, tumor suppressor genes, cancer cell, cancer spreads, normal cell, local invasion, oncogenes tumor suppressor, own blood supply, prevent cell dividing,

Approximate Word count = 1190
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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