Cell Division & Cancer Risk
Name: ___________________________
Research the following using reliable Internet sources which will help you answer the questions that follow:
What are stem cells?
Why do cells differentiate?
Why do you need differentiated cells?
When did your stem cells first start to differentiate?
Using the graph on the reverse side of this sheet, answer the following questions.
1) What patterns do you observe in this figure?
2) What do the trends in this figure tell you about the relationship between stem cell divisions and cancer?
3) What are the lifetime risks (expressed as %) of colorectal cancer and duodenal cancer (not the FAP versions)?
4) What is a possible explanation for the difference in lifetime risk between the cancers in question 3 above?
5) Why do you think researchers focused on stem cells rather than fully differentiated cells?
6) Explain why the lung cancer (smokers) and lung cancer (nonsmokers) data points are vertically aligned.
7) How much higher is the risk of lung cancer in smokers than in nonsmokers?
8) Based on the data in this figure, would you expect the risk of cancer to increase or decrease as a person gets older?
Why?