Cancer+Questions+WB

1. What do cancer cells look like? 2. What is unusual about the nuclei of cancer cells? 3. Why don't cancer cells die? 4. Describe the three phases of the development of cancer. 5. Mutations in what two types of genes lead to uncontrollable growth? 6. What is p53? How does it cause cancer? 7. What is RB? How does it cause cancer? 8. What are the most common cancers cases for males and females? 9. What are the most common cancer deaths for males and females?

1. Cancer cells look unlike any other cells in the body, and pile on top of each other. 2. The nuclei of cancer cells are enlarged, and contain an unusual number of chromosomes. 3. Cancer cells do not die, because they do not go through apoptosis, which is when a cell kills itself. 4. The first stage of developing cancer is initiation, where a cell is mutated because of an outside factor (most of the time). The second stage is called promotion, which is where the cells repeatedly divide, causing a tumor. The third stage is called progression, which is where the cells repeatedly divide, causing a large tumor. 5. Mutations in tumor-suppression genes and proto-oncogenes lead to uncontrollable growth, because they stop apoptosis. 6. P53 is a protein, and it causes cancer if it is damaged, by allowing tumor growth. 7. RB causes cancer by altering the timing of the cell cycle. 8. The most common cancer for females in breast cancer, while the most common cancer for males is lung cancer. 9. The deadliest cancer for both men and women is lung cancer.