Cancer Biology

Unit IV
II B.Sc. AZB
A.KALARANI
 What is Cancer?
• Cancer is a genetic disease because it
can be traced to alterations within
specific genes
• The genetic alterations that lead to
most cancers arise in the DNA of a
somatic cell during the lifetime of the
affected individual. They can be
hereditary but not all cancers are
hereditary
• Because of these genetic changes,
cancer cells proliferate uncontrollably,
producing malignant tumors that
invade surrounding healthy tissue
 BASIC PROPERTIES OF A CANCER CELL
1. Loss of growth control
- The capacity for growth and division is not drastically different between a cancer cell and most
normal cells.
- When the normal cells proliferate to the point where they
cover the bottom of the culture dish, their growth rate
decreases markedly, and they tend to remain as a single
layer (monolayer) of cells
- Normal cells growing in culture depend on growth factors,
such as epidermal growth factor and insulin, that are
present in serum which is usually added to the growth
medium
- Growth rates drop as normal cells respond to inhibitory
influences from their environment.
- Growth-inhibiting influences may arise as the result of
depletion of growth factors in the culture medium or from
contact with surrounding cells on the dish
• When malignant cells are cultured under the
same conditions, they continue to grow, piling on
top of one another to form clumps.
• It is evident that malignant cells are not
responsive to the types of signals that cause their
normal counterparts to cease growth and division
• Not only do cancer cells ignore inhibitory growth
signals, they continue to grow in the absence of
stimulatory growth signals that are required by
normal cells.
• Cancer cells can proliferate in the absence of
serum because their cell cycle does not depend
on the interaction between growth factors and
their receptors, which are located at the cell
surface.
2. Life Span

• Normal cells growing in culture exhibit a limited capacity for

cell division; after a finite number of mitotic divisions, they
undergo an aging process that renders them unfit to continue
to grow and divide.
• Cancer cells, on the other( hand, are seemingly immortal
because they continue to divide indefinitely.
• This difference in growth potential is often attributed to the
presence of telomerase in cancer cells and its absence in
normal cells.
• Telomerase is the enzyme that maintains the telomeres at
the ends of the chromosomes, thus allowing cells to continue
to divide.
• The absence of telomerase from most types of normal cells is
thought to be one of the body’s major defenses that protects
against tumor growth.
• Telomerase is thus able to extend the life-span a cell, and has
been dubbed the “immortality” enzyme.
• In fact, we now know that 90% of all malignant tumors have
found a way to turn on telomerase, and use it to essentially
become immortal.
 3. Aneuploidy

- The most striking alterations in the nucleus

following transformation occur within the
chromosomes.
- Normal cells maintain their diploid
chromosomal complement as they grow and
divide, both in vivo and in vitro.
- In contrast, cancer cells are genetically
unstable and often have highly aberrant
chromosome complements, a condition
termed aneuploidy which may occur primarily
as a result of defects in the mitotic checkpoint
or the presence of an abnormal number of
centrosomes
- It is evident that the growth of cancer cells is
much less dependent on a standard diploid
chromosome content than the growth of
normal cells.
 4. Failed Apoptosis

• In fact, when the chromosome content of a

normal cell becomes disturbed, a signaling
pathway is usually activated that leads to the
self-destruction (apoptosis) of the cell.
• In contrast, cancer cells typically fail to elicit the
apoptotic response even when their
chromosome content becomes highly deranged.
• Protection from apoptosis is another important
hallmark that distinguishes many cancer cells
from normal cells.
 5. Cellular Metabolism
• Finally, it can be noted that cancer cells often depend
on glycolysis, which is an anaerobic metabolic
pathway.
• This property may reflect the high metabolic
requirements of cancer cells and an inadequate blood
supply within the tumor.
• Under conditions of hypoxia (reduced O2), cancer
cells activate a transcription factor called HIF that
induces the formation of new blood vessels and
promotes the migratory properties of the cells, which
may contribute to the spread of the tumor.
• However, even when oxygen is plentiful, tumor cells
continue to generate much of their ATP by glycolysis.
• The end product of glycolysis is lactic acid, which is
secreted into the tumor’s microenvironment, where it
may promote tumor growth.
THANK YOU ☺