Name: ____________________
Directions:
1) Go to the website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/cancer/grows.html
2) Read introduction and click on “How Cancer Grows” at bottom of page.
3) Keep in mind the following terms:
Cancer: malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division.
Malignant: terminate fatally.
Mutation: permanent change in hereditary material.
Tumor: an abnormal new growth of tissue, arises from uncontrolled, unusual cell division.
Follow along the web tutorial and answer the following questions.
Introduction:
1) What type of tissues do carcinoma’s effect? Where are these tissues found in the body?
DNA of a normal cell:
2) How many cells are in a human being? How many of those cells contain DNA? Is the DNA in the cells similar or different?
Mutation of DNA:
3) What is a mutation? What can cause mutations?
First mutation:
4) Why do normal cells divide? How has the mutation that occurred in the cell’s DNA affected when the cell divides?
Spread and Second Mutation:
5) About how many mutated cells would be created in 10 years? How do these cells look compared to other cells?
6) As the tumor grows, what is likely to happen? What impact will this have on the cell?

Third Mutation:
7) What does a normal cell do when it notices problems in the genetic material? How can a mutation effect this response?
8) As the tumor grows, again what is likely to happen? What impact will this have on the cell?
Fourth Mutation:
9) At this point the cells are dividing VERY rapidly. However, the tumor is still contained, what does this mean?
Breaking Through the Membrane:
10) What effect has the fourth mutation had on the cell?
11) Why is this mutation dangerous for a person?
Angiogenesis:
12) Explain what angiogenesis is and how it helps the cancer grows.
Notice that only now is the cancer large enough to detect as a lump!
Invasion:
13) How does the cancer ‘invade’ the rest of the body? How quickly does this occur?
Tumor Cells Travel:
14) What does metastasize mean?
Metastasis:
15) How does a tumor cell invade other tissues?