What Happens When a Cell Becomes a Cancer Cell? 🧬🔬

You may recall my recent post where I talked about “What a Cell Does in a Day?” 🕰️Today, let’s talk about cancer cells.

At their core, cancer cells are just like any other cells—except they don’t stop dividing. 🛑➡️📈A normal cell has regulated activities and responds to its environment appropriately. But cancer cells adapt in ways that give them an unfair advantage to grow uncontrollably.

🔍 What Does Cancer Look Like?

When we performed necropsies on tumors, I had the same question. 🤔 The subcutaneous tumor model we used formed a chunky, ball-like tumor under the skin. With careful detachment, we could remove it like a solid mass.

Other tumor models involved injecting cancer cells into the prostate. This technique, called survival surgery, allows us to study tumor growth in a specific organ. Ideally, the tumor should stay there—but if left long enough, it can spread to other sites. This process is called metastasis.

🔄 How Does Cancer Spread?

Cancer cells migrate in three main ways:🩸 Through the bloodstream🧵 Through the lymphatic system🏃 By physically moving to nearby tissue

The farther a cancer cell travels, the worse the prognosis—because it becomes harder to treat.

To migrate, cancer cells undergo Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT)—a process where cells change their phenotype to become more mobile. Understanding EMT is a key focus in cancer research because stopping it could prevent metastasis.

🧬 What Makes Cancer Cells So Aggressive?

Cancer cells have some unique tricks up their sleeve:

🔹 Uncontrolled cell division—they ignore signals to stop growing.

🔹 Adaptation to low oxygen (hypoxia)—they alter their metabolism to survive.

🔹 hTERT activation—they extend their telomeres, making them immortal.

🔹 Hijacking other cells—they manipulate normal cells to support their growth.

💊 Why Is It So Hard to Treat Cancer?

1️⃣ Cancer drugs can harm normal cells, making treatment challenging.

2️⃣ Even if most cancer cells are destroyed, a few survivors can regrow the tumor.

🤔 Is Cancer an Evolutionary Mistake?

Why would cells evolve to divide uncontrollably? One theory is that cancer cells try to escape mortality by continuously dividing. But instead of evolving, they cause disease.

And why do some cancer-causing genes get passed down? Likely because cancer develops later in life, after genes have already been inherited by the next generation.

🌍 Is It Just Genes?

No! Environmental and lifestyle factors also contribute to cancer risk. 🏡🚬🥦 We’ll dive deeper into these next—stay tuned!