Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
I
Subjects treated in this lecture
- definition of cancer
- transformation of the cell; from benign to malign
- mutations underlying cancer: oncogenes and
tumor suppressors
- construction of cancer in a Petri dish
- consequences of cancer
Cancer
from cancrum = crab, probably derived from Cancrena (16ème
siècle) describing a disease that slowly and secretely destroys
the body
Cancer are not the disease of this agen they have been observed
in corals and in 70 million year old dinosaures skeletons (bone of
3% of the Edmontosaurus is affected)
Caracteristic of cancer
1) Acquisition of a cellular mass (tumour) as a consequence of new
growth (neoplasm)
2) Loss of control of cellular function by organism
Are characterized by
- an enlarged nucleus with a big nucleolus
- little cytoplasm and altered morphology
- fewer contacts with neighbours
a « gain-of-function » mutation,
oncogenes
or
a « loss-of-function » mutations,
Cells normally prefer to die than to accept alterations that creep into
their genome and that, in the long run, may turn out to be detrimental to
the organism. In other words, the cells sacrifice themselves for the sake
of the organism.
normal cell
limited number of replications
limited growth factor signal accepted
mortal
hTERT, increased telomerase activity
transformed cell
Sequential mutations in human cancers