How does cell cycle regulation relate to cancer?
1 Answer
It has damage/repair checkpoints that, if working, should stop damaged DNA and cancerous reproduction
Explanation:
Before a cell can replicate, it first should asses if there are good conditions and room to multiply. A non cancerous cell will adhere to cues that it'd too crowded or something else is amiss. The second checkpoint checks that the DNA is in tact and has multiplied intact. P-53 is called the guardian of the genome. It stops the cell to proofread the DNA. If there are minor problems it says fix it. If there are major problems it triggers events that kill the cell.
Cancer cells don't listen to cell to cell spacial cues, and replicate over and over until they form masses; tumors. If P-53 isn't working, then it isn't checking for DNA damage and stopping the cell from being cancerous and making more copies of the damaged DNA. Checkpoints stop the cell from behaving as cancer. It's a little more complex than that but that's the basic idea.
