Question

How has the study of mitosis affected scientists’ knowledge of cancer?

Answer 1

It led to an understanding of how cancer cells divide so rapidly

Answer 2

The right answer is It led to an understanding of how cancer cells divide so rapidly.

A cancer (or malignant tumor) is a disease characterized by an abnormally large cell proliferation (tumor) in a normal tissue of the body, so that the survival of the latter is threatened.

Control points are programmed between each phase of the cell cycle to verify that the current process is proceeding normally.

This is an opportunity for the cell to identify the occurrence of possible abnormalities in its cell cycle and to trigger either an action of correction of these errors or its self-destruction (apoptosis).

If these errors are not repaired, they accumulate. It is this accumulation, over time, that is at the origin of cancer. It is considered that it takes about ten mutations for the phenomenon of cancerization to appear.

The anomalies that occur are genetic mutations, caused by errors during the replication - or reproduction - of the DNA, and therefore of the genes, when the cell divides.

In the majority of cases, these mutations occur on the DNA of a somatic cell of a particular tissue, for example, on the DNA of a colon cell.