Question

If being a cancer cell was easy every cell would do it. Based on what you learned from this course, using at least 3 distinct points, justify this statement. (5 points)

Answer 1

Answer :

Cancer is a complex genetic disease that is caused by specific changes to the genes in one cell or group of cells. These changes disrupt normal cell function – specifically affecting how a cell grows and divides. In contrast to normal cells, cancer cells don't stop growing and dividing, this uncontrolled cell growth results in the formation of a tumor. Cancer cells have more genetic changes compared to normal cells, however not all changes cause cancer, they may be a result of it. The genetic changes that contribute to cancer usually affect three specific types of gene; proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and DNA repair genes

Normal Cell. Cancer cell

Cell shape	Uniform	Irregular
Nucleus	Spheroid shape, single nucleus	Irregular shape, multi-nucleation common
Chromatin	Fine, evenly distributed	Coarse, aggregated
Nucleolus	Single, inconspicuous nucleolus	Multiple, enlarged nucleoli
Cytoplasm	Large cytoplasmic volume	Small cytoplasmic volume
Growth	Controlled	Uncontrolled
Maturation	Mature into specialized cells	Remain immature and undifferentiated
Blood supply	Normal angiogenesis (occurs during development/ healing)	Tumor-induced angiogenesis
Oxygen	Favored (for aerobic respiration) but will undergo anaerobic respiration if required	Not required (thrive in hypoxic conditions), favor anaerobic respiration
Location	Remain in their intended location	Can spread to different locations in the body (metastasis )

These following factors are there which are present in normal amd cancer cell which differentiate the cancer cell to normal cell

so every cell cannot be the cancer cell