400981 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Adipose Tissue

• School: UWS
• Department: University of Western Sydney
• Course: 400981
• Professor: unknown

Document Summary

Breast cancer, like other cancers occurs because of an interaction between an environmental (external) factor and a genetically susceptible host. Normal cells divide as many times as needed and stop. They attach to other cells and stay in place in tissues. Cells become cancerous when they lose their ability to stop dividing, to attach to other cells, to stay where they belong, and to die at the proper time. Normal cells will commit cell suicide programmed cell death when they are no longer needed. Until then, they are protected from cell suicide by several protein clusters and pathways. One of the protective pathways is the p13k/akt pathway. Sometimes the genes along these protective pathways are mutated in a way that turns them permanently "on", rendering the cell incapable of committing suicide when it is no longer needed. This is one of the steps that causes cancer in combination with other mutations.