Cancer : An Uncontrollable Division Of Cells

Neoplastic growth proliferate (process of cell division) to form new tissue; There is no waiting for signals from the body that new tissue is needed; The ignore signals to stop dividing; They do not mature normally (differentiate), to do the job the tissue is supposed to do. They do not die off (apoptosis), to keep the number of total cells constant.

Cancer is described as the abnormal growth of cells. Normal cells are replaced with abnormal cells in which their deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been damaged or augmented (McCance & Huether, 2014). Cancer cells with their various DNA changes are characterized by growing uncontrollably, being immortal with an unlimited lifespan

Cancer is defined by the National Cancer Institute as the title given to a group of related diseases. All types of cancer are categorized by uncontrollable growth of cells that metastasize to surrounding tissues. Cancer can develop at almost any part of the human body and anyone can develop cancer, although risk typically increases with age because most cancers tend to require many years to develop. ?Typically, human cells tend to grow and divide and ultimately form new cells as the body needs them. When an organisms cells grow old or get damaged, the cells die, and new ones replace them. However when cancer develops, this orderly process gets reformatted. As cells increasingly get more irregular, old or damaged cells begin to survive when they should die, and new cells develop in the body when there is no need for them. These abnormal cells have the ability to divide without stopping and tend to result in growths called tumors?(cancer.gov). Cancerous tumors are defined as malignant meaning that they can spread to nearby tissues or metastasize to distant places in places within the body and form new cancerous tumors. There are over 100 forms of cancer and they are usually named after the organs or tissues where the cancers originate. Staging of cancer is used when describing the severity of a person?s cancer and is based upon the following

Mutations (for most cancers) must appear in both tumour suppressing genes and oncogenes for cancers to form. The tumour suppressing genes and oncogenes act in complementary fashion to one another; one pulls forward, and the other pushes back ensuring that the cell cycle occurs in a controlled manner (Sherr, 2004).

The third step is metastasis. Which is the invasion of cancerous cells into nearby tissues as well as the migration of cancerous cells to other tissues via

Cancer cells are able to overexpress the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein. This is a signal protein that stimulates angiogenesis (lymphangiogenisis for lymph canal production) and allows the tumour to develop. This process is shown in figure 2.

First, we must understand what cancer is and how it forms, cancer is “a malignant and invasive growth or tumor, especially one originating in epithelium, tending to recur after excision and to metastasize to other sites.”1 it is when normal cells mutate and begin to reproduce at such an accelerated rate that body does not have time to get rid of these bad cells and a mass begins to grow creating a problem for the body.

The American Cancer Society states that cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death (10). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the second leading cause of death. In 2002 alone, half a million Americans will die of this disease. Of this numerical figure, it is estimated that perhaps more than 1,500 individuals a day will die. In addition, one of every four deaths in America is from cancer (9).

Metastasis causes the most deaths in cancer yet this process remains one of the most enigmatic aspects of the disease. Metastasis has a two-phase process first phase is the physical translocation of the cancer cell and the second encompasses the cancer cell to develop into a metastatic lesion. Carcinogenesis is known as the formation of cancer, were normal cells transform into cancer cells. This process is by changes at the cellular, genetic and epigenetic level. It reprograms the cell to under go uncontrolled cell division by growing a malignant mass.

Cancer, medically called ‘tumorigenesis’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430) occurs when cells in the body orient themselves for malignant growth. Such cells show ‘self-sufficiency in growth signals’, are ‘insensitive to anti-growth signals’ and have ‘limitless replicative potential’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430). Once a particular set of cells become malignant, the malignancy can spread to other set of cells in different organs due to ‘crosstalk’ between the affected cells and their surrounding ‘tissues’ and ‘micro-environments’(Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430).

The uncontrollable spread of cancer is the principal event which leads to the death in individuals with cancer and it is the greatest barrier of developing cures for cancer. Metastasis is the progressive spread of malignant cancer cells from the primary tumour to secondary organ in distant sites and this potential is dependent on the specific microenvironment which support them to complete each step of the metastatic process (Poste & Fidler 1980). To understand the molecular basis of metastasis, investigators have now separated the complex and highly selective metastasis process into series of steps to try and solve the problems cause by

Cancer is listed as the second most common cause of death in western countries; particularly, in adults. Though it has a long antiquity, its prevalence and incidence today is pervasive and the war on cancer has not been promising. Malignant neoplasia is characterized by uncontrolled growth and the ability to metastasize or spread from the original site. Cancer results from mutations that promote cell proliferation and inhibit cell adhesion (metastasis). According to the National Cancer Institute (2016), “Cancer can also spread regionally,

One of the very last words anyone wants to hear from their doctors or loved ones is cancer. The word automatically instills fear, confusion, denial, and leaves the individual questioning his or her beliefs wondering “Why me?”. It overpowers all previous commitments or opportunities seizing control over the customary quality of life. Cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body often metastasizing elsewhere. With more than two hundred types of cancer that can affect more than sixty organs, cancer kills a half million people annually in the United States alone1. It is understandable why cancer’s reputation is dismal and menacing. Although there is no cure for cancer, doctors and researchers

A cancerous cell must adapt to various biological, chemical pathways, and modify it to impose its malignant behavior in human’s cell. The authors, Douglas Hanahan and Robert A. Weinberg points out six significant variations in cell physiology that leads to the composition of most of these cancerous cell. The cell’s autonomy in growth signals, insensivity to growth-inhibitory signals, circumvent apoptosis, endless replication, angiogenesis sustainability, as well as neighboring tissue invasion along with metastasis are main acquired capabilities of cancer cells. The article’s significance depends on its simplicity to convey information by providing concise methods as to how the cancer cell acquires the capabilities to turn normal human cells into cancerous one.

For cancer to develop, a single cell in the body must be mutated so that it undergoes continuous and uncontrollable cell division without the ability to exhibit apoptosis (i.e. programmed cell death for the good of the organism). In order to gain these abilities, a series of genes must mutate simultaneously within the cell. First, a class of genes called oncogenes must be turned on to express themselves at high levels. Activation causes the loss of apoptosis ability and accelerates cell growth and cell division. In addition, another class of