Test Your Knowledge of the Hallmarks of Cancer!

Introduction to the Hallmarks of Cancer: Self-Sufficiency in Growth Signals and Insensitivity to Anti-Growth Signals

• Cancers arise as a result of gene damage to a cell, leading to the production of proteins that function differently.
• The six hallmarks of cancer were introduced by Douglas Hanahan and Robert Weinberg in 2000, later updated to ten hallmarks in 2011.
• The first two hallmarks of cancer are self-sufficiency in growth signals and insensitivity to anti-growth signals.
• Cells divide uncontrollably and neoplasms form when cells break free of normal cell division controls.
• Growth factors are hormones in the form of proteins that signal to other cells to divide.
• Growth factor receptors are proteins that sit in a cell's membrane and bind to growth factor hormones, activating a cascade of signals within the cell that leads to cell division.
• Mutations in genes, which produce faulty receptors, cause cells to divide uncontrollably and pass on their DNA to daughter cells.
• Cancerous cells ignore signals that usually prevent them from dividing when they shouldn't be, exhibiting insensitivity to inhibitory signals.
• The cell cycle is a process a cell goes through in order to divide, with checkpoints regulating the process.
• Tumor suppressor genes code for proteins that detect DNA damage and stop the cell from dividing, preventing mutated cells from growing into tumors.
• Mutations in proteins detecting DNA damage cause mechanisms to fail, enabling cells with mutations to enter the cell cycle and pass on their DNA to daughter cells.
• Understanding the hallmarks of cancer can help with cancer treatment and management.