Cell and development. Properties of Normal Cells and Cancer Cells

Cell and Development
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Cell Development: Lung Cancer
Cancer refers to a chronic disease that occurs as a result of the formation of uncontrolled body cells known as cancerous cells. There are many types of cancer, and each is classified based on the type of cell that as initially attacked. Cancerous cells are cells that no longer respond to normal cell growth and death. In the early stage of cancer, the cancerous cells rapidly grow and become increasingly resistant to the body immune system since the infected cells cut the coordination with other normal cells. The cancer cells survive the body’s immune response by evading and resisting the programmed cell death. The disease harms the body when the abnormal cells irrepressibly divide to develop masses of tissue known as a tumor with the exception of leukemia case where the altered cells in the bloodstream inhibit proper blood functioning. Essentially the lumps of a tumor tend to affect the blood circulatory, digestive and the nervous systems, and therefore triggering the endocrine glands to secrete hormones that interferer the normal body functions. In the late stage of cancer, the cancer cells break and diverge through normal tissues and spread, and infect the other parts of the body under a process called metastasis.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the most common cause of death globally with over 14 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths in the last decade (Reckamp, 2016). The most typical types of cancer include breast cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer and endometrial cancer. In reference to the definition of cancer, lung cancer occurs as a result of the growth of the uncontrolled cells in either one or both lungs, typically in the cells along the air passage lines. Cigarette smoking and passive exposure of is regarded as the major contributing cause of lung cancer. Thus, the paper chooses to focus on lung cancer since it is the type of cancer that affects both men and women at equal magnitude worldwide.
.Properties of Normal Cells and Cancer Cells
Normal cells undergo cell division upon receiving signals from their external environment or otherwise they will not divide. Normal cells also undergo proliferation when there is sufficient space for the new cells and surface to attach on as well. On the other hand, cancer cells do not possess the ability to cell division (Enders, 2010). Formation of a cancer cell can just result from a single cell when a normal cell becomes unregulated. Another property of cancer cells is that they have the tendency of differentiating at a slower rate compared to the cells from which they originated (Enders, 2010). The transformed cells gain a competitive advantage over the normal cells because their membrane transport system carries large amounts of nutrients. Once the transformed cells form a one-cell-thick monolayer, they continue growing and piling on top of each other forming a tumor. Unlike the normal cells, the transformed cells do not a place to attach for them to grow.
As aforementioned, lung cancer is formed when the cells of the lung grow and behave differently from the normal cells. Unlike the abnormal cell, normal cells usually follow a clear and orderly path of growth, cell division, and death. The automatic programmed death of cells is known as apoptosis. When the normal cells fail to break down and die during apoptosis, cancer cells begin to form and continue to grow out of control. Essentially, the normal cells are kept in a regular functioning by the hundreds of genes that complexly control the process of cell division. Normal cell division requires the correct balance between the promoting and the suppressing genes in the cell proliferation process (Enders, 2010). Also, a correct balance gene is needed in cell proliferation to prompt signals that initiates apoptosis on damaged cells. The normal cells turn cancerous when mutation accumulate and clump on genes that facilitate proliferation
The mutations of the cancerous cells continue to pile because they tend to inactivate genes that suppress cell division and cuts the signals necessary for apoptosis. The genes responsible for suppressing cell proliferation are known as tumor-suppressing genes as they act as breaks on cell division resulting in an uncontrolled division (Liu & Lathia, 2013). For an uncontrolled division to incur, both copies in a cell must be mutated to disrupt the gene code that normally functions as a sensor that identifies the damaged cells and act as a detecting element for inspecting the control genes (Liu & Lathia, 2013). Basically, cancer is a microevolution process, whereby the mutation accumulates over time as a result of independent activities. Cancer cells tend to replicate more copies of itself than the normal cell because they have the stronger affinity to resources as well. Thus, the more the mutation process takes place, the more the cancer cells intensifies its competitive advantage over normal cells.
Causes of Lung Cancer
Many cases of lung cancer are attributed to smoking, although some victims have developed the condition without smoking. In particular, cigarette smoking accounts for more than 85% of cases of lung cancer. According to CDC, tobacco in the cigarettes contains more than 60 different toxic elements known as carcinogenic that are associated with cancer development. Apart from cigarettes, consuming other types of tobacco products such cigars, pipe tobacco and snuff powder also increase users’ risk to cancer (Pass, et al., 2012). Nicotine is among one of the toxic substance in cigarettes are full of poison and toxic substances. Nicotine is highly diffusive, and once inhaled, they reach the lungs, the brain, and other body organs within 10 seconds.
Essentially, the strong chemicals from in tobacco create an environment that fosters the growth of cancerous cells by damaging the DNA and cancer suppressing genes. The dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes that causes DNA damage include polonium-210, nitrosamines, benzene, and benzo(a)pyrene (Pass, et al., 2012). For example, benzo(a)pyrene attaches strongly to the DNA, hence increasing the damage of the DNA. Also, chemicals such as nickel and arsenic in tobacco inhibit the process of repairing damaged DNA, and this also increases the likelihood of turning the damaged cells into cancer cells. However, it may take long years for the damaged DNA to cause cancer as the body is designed to fight against this toxins. Excess smoking leads to extensive damage of the DNA as it only one cigarette can damage a single DNA, and this increases the risk of developing cancer consequently (Pass, et al., 2012). Therefore, smokers are more valuable to lung cancer than non-smokers because their body is less able to remove or neutralize toxins from the bloodstream.
Other causative agents of lung cancer include passive smoking, radon, as well as occupational exposure and pollution. Passive smoking refers to the inhalation of tobacco substance from others smokers within the vicinity. Statistics indicate that the non-smoker who live together with smokers have 24% chances of developing lung cancer (Reckamp, 2016). Radon gas a naturally occurring gas that is estimated to account for approximately 12% of cases of lung cancer deaths to both smokers and non-smokers globally (Pass, et al., 2012). Radon gas reaches places of human dwellings from the soil through gaps, pipes and other openings. Lastly, some occupations, especially in the industrial zones, expose people to dangerous chemicals and substances such as asbestos, cadmium, nickel, coal fumes and arsenic, thus increasing individual&rsq...