How do cells become canerous ?

Question

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Answer 1

In general, they become cancerous when they don't know when to stop dividing. There are certain controls in a normal cell that don't work in a cancerous cell. Understanding how exactly this happens, what are all the control mechanisms and where failure occurs is an active area of research.

Answer 2

Cells become cancerous because the process of cell division is not controlled. Their is a system in your body much like traffic lights and it tells all cells whether they are able to divide or not. If it is red then the cell is not allowed to divided. If it is green then it is able to divide. So when you have cancer the green light is always on which means all cells are allowed to divide. So the actual dictionary definition of cancer is "the uncontrollable growth and division of cells". I hope that this example has made sense and in case you are wondering the stage in Mitosis where cells divide is called Cytokinesis but is not offically considered a part of Mitosis.

Answer 3

Cells become cancerous when the p53 gene is mutated or not transcibed at the required amount.

p53 gene controls the cell division. When cells cannot control its division, it is deemed cancerous. So, when the p53 gene is mutated, the protein that it produces would not signal how much a cell should divide. Similarly, when the p53 gene is transcibed at a small amount, the protein that is translated would be insufficient to signal the cease of the cell division.

Cytokinesis is part of mitosis by the way because it happens in Telophase.

Answer 4

The posters have explained it right, in that cancer occurs when the cell loses control of the cell cycle and thus its own division, and divides rapidly in a heterogeneous manner (meaning that cancer cells in the same cell line are NOT IDENTICAL!!). Note that in aging, the cell also loses control of its cell cycle, but the opposite happens in that division is SLOWED.

Now, how does this happen? Well, genes that are involved in the cell cycle and its control can be referred to as oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes. Respectively, these PROMOTE cell division, and SUPPRESS cell division, and when these genes become mutated, this can cause cancer.

Oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes are genes that are involved in either the cell cycle itself, or components of SIGNALING PATHWAYS that signal cells to divide, not divide, or die (apoptotic signals). The signaling pathways start from the outside of the cell, through transmembrane proteins, through the cell and to the nucleus. Sometimes if one protein in this pathway is disrupted, it can cause cancer.

The best example of a tumor suppressor gene is p53. p53 is involved in stopping the cell cycle, and DNA repair primarily. In a majority of cancers, there is a mutation in this gene, causing the cell to lose control of its cycle.

Answer 5

cells become cancerous when it fail to stop itself and it keep on dividing.