What is the Role of Mitosis in Cancer?

                                                                                          Mary Berg
                                                                                          Whelan
 In life, everybody has a buddy. Whether it’s your siblings, your mom/dad, or even your cat, we all have a buddy and a buddy system.  Cells have a “buddy system” with things in common that makes a big process.  The process I will be introducing is called mitosis. But I am going to discuss it a little further, I will be talking about the role of the process, mitosis in cancer and how it can be cured.

First of all, what is cancer? Cancer is a disease that can basically occur everywhere on your body, including the outside such as your skin. Cancer is caused by cells that grow uncontrollably.  Cancer starts out as a tumor, which starts out as kind of like a plant growth. But once the tumor starts, a process called metastasis, takes the tumor and spreads the cells and bacteria of it all over the body through the bloodstream. The tumor doesn’t always spread, but it most likely is to. Everybody will inherit their parents’ genes, especially from mother to daughter, and father to son. The genes you get are most likely from your parents of the same gender (Cell Reproduction: Mitosis and Cancer).

Secondly, cancer cells start in the nucleus where the DNA is, and your genes are in the DNA chromosomes. The nucleus is the center of the whole cell “buddy system”.  A system is where a bunch of little parts come together to make one big idea, and/or a big process.  The DNA and genes is what makes the cancer come together and form the process, Mitosis (Gregory).

Furthermore, some discoveries that were made on cancer cells. Such as “Normally, cells divide every 24 hours in a very orderly fashion. One becomes two, then three, then four, ETC. They all have a controlled start and stop time on when they divide. But when they divide nonstop in a chaotic fashion, the result can be cancer” (Cancer Discovery). “The thing all cancers have in common is the uncontrolled growth in cells” (Cancer Discovery). “100 genes make the difference of healthy cells and cancer cells. You may never smoke in your life but you can still get lung cancer” (Cancer Discovery). Cancer cells are made from mitosis because, when your cell keeps spliting ad reproducing your cancer cells are born (Cancer Discovery).

Pursing this further, there are many types of treatments that someone with cancer can go in and get. Such as surgery, surgery can be used us a treatment if the cancer isn’t spread though your whole body. The doctors go in and try to get rid of most of the cancer and in most cases everyone with cancer has surgery at least once (Society). Another treatment is Chemo, “Chemotherapy (chemo) is the use of medicines or drugs to treat cancer they go in and try to target the cancer cells” (Society).  Another treatment is Radiation therapy, “Radiation therapy uses high-energy particles or waves to destroy or damage cancer cells” (Society). Lastly “Targeted therapy is a newer type of cancer treatment that uses drugs or other substances to more precisely identify and attack cancer cells, usually while doing little damage to normal cells” (Society). There are many more different types of treatments a patient with cancer can go through those were just a few.

Many people thought that cancer just comes to your body when really cancer starts due to mitosis. Mitosis is the main starting of cancer due to the harm mass of multiplying cells (Cancer Discovery).   

Bibliography:

"Cell Reproduction: Mitosis and Cancer." 25 February 2004. IUPUI DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY. 16 April 2012 <http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/N100/2k4ch8mitosisnotes.html>.

Gregory, Michael. "Cancer." Suny. <http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/files/bio%20100/bio%20100%20lectures/cancer/cancer.htm>.