If cancer cells live forever unless you kill them could we alter our cells...?

Question

to never get old.
Is immortality possible?

Okay so cancer cell don't live forever. why do cells die is there a way to make cells live forever.

Answer 1

Parts of a couple of the answers you have look good. It's true that cancer cells become less specialized in function so they can't fulfill the role of cells in an organ very well. They lose the ability to make some of the needed proteins for that function. But they can divide without limit (called immortal by cell biologists), although as some have said, cells in an immortal cell line do die.
Recently, it seems that results support the idea that you can have your cells divide without limit OR you can live to a ripe old age. Protective proteins that act against cancer cells promote longevity in several cases, such as p53 and INK4. So, if we want to help our skin look nice by promoting cell division, as far as we know now, we might have to accept a higher cancer rate.

Answer 2

There are two steps that make cancer cells what they are: immortalization and growth regulation release. As stated above, immortal cells and cancer cells don't actually live forever, but rather never stop dividing until they die, and have no control as to how fast they divide.

The first step is the mutation/deletion of any region involved with causing cells to stop growing after dividing a set number of times. For instance, a liver cell will divide until it reaches the chemical gradient that tells it it has reached the edge of the liver and is touching the peritineum. This is called immortalization, and although it sounds nice, is actually bad.

The second step is to knock out a gene involved in control of the rate of cell division. Normally there is an orderly dance within the cell where chromosomes line up, get pulled apart, and are apportioned to the to new cells. This is time dependent. The cell can't do this very orderly thing if it is in a hurry, and knocking out this second type of gene knocks the cells timing out of whack, so that divisons occur before they're ready, and the genetic makeup of the resulting cells is a chaotic mess, which in turn causes more genes being knocked out etc. Generally not a state you want any part of your body to be in.

Answer 3

Cancer cells die just like 'normal' cells. What cancer cells do NOT do is the job of the organ in which they 'live'. Thus, a lung cancer cell does not exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide, a cancer liver cell doesn't process blood, etc.

It's not the cells that kill us, it's the damage that the cells do to our normal body processes.

That said, to answer your question directly - I hope that immortality is not possible. Something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy

Answer 4

Your presumption that cancer cells live forever is false. Nothing "lives" forever. Go back to your source and tell them they are wrong.

Answer 5

no