Question: how would you identify a cancer cell from a normal cell

Remsha Afzal answered on 7 Nov 2018:

Hi Cristian, that is a very good question. There are different ways to identify cancer cells from normal cells including how they grow, communicate with other cells, repair, spread, function and look!!

If you look under a microscope, cancer cells will usually be unusually larger or smaller than a normal cell and they will also have a weirder shape than what you expect of a normal cell. The nucleus of the cell (the main control center inside each cell) can appear darker because cancer cells have more DNA than normal. They also grow differently: Normal cells stop growing and dividing when enough cells are present around them. Like if you had a cut on your skin, normally your cells will repair the cut till a new layer is formed but then they stop. Cancer cells don’t do that because they don’t have that brake inside them. They continue growing and growing till they form a tumor (a cluster of cells). They also can start spreading all over the body then (metastasis) because they don’t know how to respond to signals from other cells saying ‘Hey stop! this is my space, don’t come in here’