What is Cancer?
Cancer is a disease that is caused from abnormalities of a cell through the process of mitosis, other known as cell division. Cancer is not just one disease; it is many different types of diseases. Cancer develops when a cell divides itself uncontrollably; this is called a cancer cell. Cancer cells are developed when a change occurs in the cell that affects how the cell divides. When a cell’s DNA is changed, it is known as a mutation. Some examples of mutation are environmental agents such as; ultraviolet radiation or cigarette smoke. However, some cancer-causing mutations are also inherited. The cancer cell could also seem immortal because they do not stop dividing and spreads around one’s entire body attacking other cells.
How Cancer Cells are different from Normal Cells:
How Cancer Cells are different from Normal Cells:
Normal Cell | Cancer Cell |
Makes exact copies of themselves through the process of mitosis | Makes exact copies of themselves through the process of mitosis |
Reproduces for about 50 – 60 cell divisions | does not stop reproducing |
sticks together to form masses of cells as appropriatel | does not stick to other cells behaves independently l |
self-destructs when too old or too damaged through the process of apoptosis | may move to another location of the body |
Normal cell division versus Cancer cell divison
This picture shows how the two cells goes through the process of mitosis. In a normal cell, it would go through mitosis and if the cell is damaged it would go through the stage of apoptosis where it dies. If not, the cell would continue to reproduce for another 50-60 times after all the phases of mitosis is complete. The phases a cell would go through are; Interphase, early prophase, late prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis. Whereas, the cancerous cell would only divide, the cancer cell can sometimes be classified as an immortal cell because it only reproduces.
Stages in cell division
This image shows a description of all the different stages that a cell goes through in order to reproduce. If anything goes wrong in any of these stages, a cancerous cell will appear. This is how cancer cells start and they reproduce non stop eventually, it will travel around the entire body.