If you were inspecting tissue taken from a tumor biopsy, what characteristics would you look for that would indicate the presence of cancer cells? Describe three distinct morphological differences you would expect to see between normal cells and cancer cells. Describe the genetic mutations that you think occurred in the cancer cells that were responsible for the phenotypic differences between the normal and cancer cells you observed. Why is cancer such a difficult disease to study? How can studying genes give us more information about cancer?

The characteristics may include the number of blood cells or abnormal cells in the system, the presence of tumor and cancer genes formed from normal genes after mutation or increased expression.

Cancer cells have abnormal nuclei with many chromosomal irregularities. They form tumors because they do not exhibit contact inhibition. They induce angiogenesis and cause nearby blood vessels to form a capillary network that services the tumor. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells can undergo repeated cell cycle and are everlasting.

This can be as a result of the mutation in a BCR gene.

Cancer is difficult to study because it is not just a single disease but a term that encompasses around 200 different complex diseases with a variety of stages and variations.

Cancers are caused when cells divide too rapidly, and are dividing without correcting mistakes in the DNA (mutations). We have protective genes in our cells which control the rate of division, fix problems with DNA, or even kill the cell if it too damaged. When these protective proteins are gone or not working right, that is when we get cancer. So by finding out more about these proteins (and the genes which encode them) we can discover more about specific types and causes of cancer.

Explanation:

The characteristics may include the number of blood cells or abnormal cells in the system, the presence of tumor and cancer genes formed from normal genes after mutation or increased expression. Cancer cells are different from normal cells in many ways. For example, cancer cells have multiple cell cycles and are everlasting while normal cells can only undergo 50 cell cycles.