Which Statement Best Describes Cancer Cells?

There are many ways cancer cells differ from normal cells. Proto-oncogenes have altered the control of cell division and made them more differentiated. They divide quickly and can form a tumour or lump if they grow in sufficient numbers. Tumours are usually composed of billions of cancer cells.

Cancer cells also have lower adhesion, which can lead to morphological or cytoskeletal changes. For example, tumor cells are more rounded than normal cells, and are therefore less firmly attached to neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix. They are therefore more likely to invade and spread.

Another characteristic of cancer cells are their inability to ignore signals telling normal cells to divide or die. Instead, they invade surrounding tissues and spread throughout the body. In contrast, normal cells stop growing when they encounter other cells and do not spread around the body. Furthermore, cancer cells can trick the immune system into helping them grow.

Normal cells have a uniform shape and chromatin, while cancer cells have irregular shapes. These irregularities are caused due to an imbalance in the protein components of the nuclear lamina. Moreover, cancer cells also have blebs and clumps of chromatin, which vary in size and shape.

When examining cancer cells, researchers have discovered that these cells have reduced requirements for growth factors. These cells also have a higher production of their own growth factor, which allows them to proliferate more. Thus, cancer cells are able to grow uncontrolled despite their low needs for normal growth factors.

A biopsy is used to determine the stage of cancer. If cancer cells are found in this stage of the tumor, they will be divided into three categories. Which classification best describes the cancer cells in a patient? If a cancer cell is in this stage, it has a poor prognosis.

Cancer cells are affected by mutations in a gene. The changes make the cell less functional. These mutations are responsible to the development of cancerous tumors. Oncogenes are the genes that cause tumor growth. These genes are not the only ones that cancer cells have. They also contain increased amounts of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes as well as DNA repair genes.

Tumors also influence the blood supply by secreting pro-angiogenic signals. These characteristics allow cancer cells to behave differently from normal cells, and researchers are able to exploit these characteristics to fight cancer. These cells can also invade surrounding tissues. Ultimately, cancer cells can cause organs to die if their metastatic growth is not controlled.

The development of cancer is a multistep process involving mutations and selection of cells with increased capacity. Tumor initiation is thought to be caused by a genetic alteration that causes the abnormal growth of a single cell, which then leads to the outgrowth of clonally derived tumor cells. Additional mutations are added to the tumor population as it grows. Some mutations confer selective advantages on the cell, and descendants of these cells will eventually dominate the tumor population.