# Cancer

In medical science, cancer is classified as a disease in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth, invasion that intrudes upon and destroys adjacent tissues, and sometimes metastasis, or spreading to other locations in the body via lymph or blood.

In fact, cancer is after Cardiovascular diseases the second most cause of death in Germany. Since there are many different types of cancer, its treatment is very complex and difficult.

### What does cancer do in the human body?

Cancer is fundamentally a disease of failure of regulation of tissue growth. In order for a normal cell to transform into a cancer cell, the genes which regulate cell growth and differentiation must be altered.

In the human body, thousands of genes maintain the original genetic information from one cell generation to the next. Each cell contains elaborate machinery for accurately copying its store of genetic information, as well as specialized enzymes for repairing DNA when it is damaged.

If DNA replication errors occur during cell division, an error-correcting process called proofreading is triggered. For example, to prevent transmission of altered genetic information, an aborning cell death can be induced.

The genetic code consists of 4 different components: A (yellow), C (red), G (green) und T (blue).

How many A can you find in the shown DNA sequence?

Answer

The given double-strand DNA looks as follows:

CAGAACATCGATGTTCTG

GTCTTGTAGCTACAAGAC

In the whole DNA sequence you can find 10 'A'.

Hide answer

Use the mouse to rotate the DNA!

As previously mentioned, the human body has several specific correcting and repairing mechanisms to guarantee the maintainance of the original genetic information. For example, the genetic code is given by a double strand, where each of the 4 components has a fixed complementary partner. Thus, if one half of the strand is damaged, the whole genetic code can be reconstructed using the second, complementary half. No information is lost, since it is stored redundant. Based on this principle, the human cell is able to genetically repair itself during cell division.

Which component is always complementary to A?

Use the mouse to get a closer look!

Reseachers identified cancer cells to grow and divide at an unregulated, quickened pace compared to ordinary human cells. Moreover, cancer cells have no repairing machinery if DNA reading errors occur during its replication. Hence, the original cell's genome is altered, which can cause several dangerous dysfunctions in the human body, as for example uncontrolled cell growth leading to malign tumors.

Based on this knowledge, pharmaceutical companies tried to find drugs against cancer by focusing on cell division.

Docetaxel is such a drug for the treatment of breast cancer. On the following pages you can learn more about Docetaxel.

- Back
- Next