Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cell growth and proliferation. There are several key properties of cancer cells: 1) Cancer cells are immortal and resist apoptosis. They do not depend on growth factors and can survive without them. 2) Cancer cells lose contact inhibition and continue growing even when in contact with other cells. 3) Cancer cells are invasive - they secrete enzymes that allow them to invade and spread to other tissues. They also stimulate angiogenesis to develop new blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen to the growing tumor. 4) Cancer cells have increased sugar transport and glycolysis to fuel their rapid growth and division, even in low-oxygen conditions within the tumor.

1. PROPERTIES OF CANCER
Miss Pratiksha G. Puranik
M.Sc.(ZOOLOGY)B.Ed Ph.D Pursuing
Shri Shivaji Science College Amravati,
Maharashtra

2. WHAT IS CANCER
CELL?

3. • The uncontrolled,
abnormal, fast growth and
multiplication of cells
leading to the formation
of tumor in any part of the
body is commonly called
as cancer OR Tumor

4. TUMOR
Tumor is an abnormal mass of tissue resulting
from uncontrolled division.
Tumor is of two types
I. Malignant Tumor
II. Benign Tumor

8. RETINOBLASTOMA ( CANCER OF
EYE)

9. PROPERTIES OF CANCER CELL

10. 1) IMMORTALIZATION /
UNRESPONSIVENESS TO APOPTOSIS
• Many cancer cells fail to undergo apoptosis and
therefore exhibit increase life span compared to their
normal cells.
• Normal cell is depend on external growth factor.
• In contrast, tumor cells are often able to survive in the
absence of growth factors required by their normal
cells.

12. 2) LOSS OF CONTACT INHIBITION

13. 3) INVASIVENESS
• Cancerous cells are invasive i.e., they have ability to
invade other tissues.
• This invasiveness could be the result of change in plasma
membrane.
• This cancer cells secrete proteases that digest
extracellular matrix components, allowing the cancer
cells to invade adjacent normal tissue.

14. Fig:- Invasiveness

15. 4) INCREASED SUGAR TRANSPORT AND
INCREASED RATE OF GLYCOLYSIS
• Tumor cells consume much glucose than normal cells
because they have to grow and multiply.
• There is great increase in the rate of sugar transport
across the surface cell membrane after transformation.
• The cells experience hypoxia i.e., deficiency of oxygen
then the cell activating the transcription factor, hypoxia
inducible transcription factor (HIF1).
• This HIF1 increases the expression of most glycolytic
enzymes and the glucose transporters GLUT1 and
GLUT3.

16. 5) ANGIOGENESIS
• Cancer cells secrete growth factor i.e., vascular
endothelial growth factor that promote the formation of
new blood vessels.
• New blood vessels are required to supply oxygen and
nutrients to the proliferating cancerous cells.
• That growth factor stimulate proliferation of endothelial
cells in the walls of capillaries into the tumor.
• The formation of new blood vessels is important not
only in supporting tumor growth, but also in metastasis.

17. Fig:- Angiogenesis

18. More blood vessel
More blood
More Nutrient factors
More Cell growth
No Apoptosis
Formation of tumor

19. 6) DEFECTIVE DIFFERENTIATION
• Cancer cells are fail to differentiate normally.
• Normally the most fully differentiate cells ceases cell
division.
• Cancerous cells are usually blocked at early stage of
differentiation.
• All the different types of blood cells are derived from a
common hematopoietic stem cell in bone marrow.

20. Fig:- Defective Differentiation

21. 7) LOSS OF ANCHORAGE DEPENDENCE
• Most normal cells must be attached to a rigid substratum
in order to grow.
• Transformed cells can grow even when they are not
attached to the substratum.
• This loss of anchorage is the striking characteristic of
cancer cell, which form malignant tumors.

23. REFERENCES
1) Biochemistry, 7th Edition
Jeremy M. Berg
John L. Tymoczko
Lubert Stryer
2) The Cell – A Molecular Approach, 4th Edition
Geoffrey . M. Cooper
Robert E. Hausman
3) https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-
cancer

24. THANKYOU