• Question: why do cancer cells increase so quickly?

    Asked by nigeorge to Iain on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      For two reasons:
      (1) The mechanisms that hold them back are broken and ‘stop dividing’ signals don’t get through. This happens because of mutations in genes called ‘tumour suppressor genes’.
      (2) The mechanisms that make them divide are broken and the ‘grow, divide’ signals don’t get switched off. This happens because of mutations in genes called ‘oncogenes’.

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