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The Nature of Cancer
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
- Cancer as a Genetic Disease
- DNA Repair Genes
- Chromosome Mutations and Cancer
- The Molecular Genetics of Colorectal Cancer
Normal cells grow, divide, mature, and die in response to a complex set of internal and external signals. A normal cell receives both stimulatory and inhibitory signals, and its growth and division are regulated by a balance between these opposing forces. In a cancer cell, one or more of the signals has been disrupted, which causes the cell to proliferate at an abnormally high rate. As they lose their response to the normal controls, cancer cells gradually lose their regular shape and boundaries, eventually forming a distinct mass of abnormal cells—a tumour. If the cells of ...
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