Daniel Torres

On 24/6/2009 at 9:53 PM, cameron marical said:

Why is cancer so frequent, instead of mutations that do something like change your skin color or the like?

the UV rays in addition to causing damage to DNA, are responsible for the production of point mutations in relevant genes such as p53, consisting of transitions occurring in dipyrimidine sites. The accumulation of mutations in the suppressor gene of p53 tumors induced by UV radiation was found at the beginning of the skin tumor process.
you can find enough information in this article: " Morales, C., & López-Nevot, M. A. (2006). Efectos de la radiación ultravioleta (UV) en la inducción de mutaciones de p53 en tumores de piel. Oncología (Barcelona), 29(7), 25-32."

the cell cycle control points are affected when there is a mutation in them, such as the p53 protein, or also called guardian of the genome, is responsible for inducing the cell's response to DNA damage, stopping the cycle cell in case of mutation, if these control points fail, the damaged cell will continue to duplicate and can cause cancer.

The properties of Bcl-2 are so relevant and diverse that they can decide the outcome of a cell, either by apoptosis, necrosis or autophagy. However, this ability, if poorly regulated, can allow altered cells to survive and give rise to strains with these characteristics and additionally acquire others.

DNA alterations cause the suppression of proapoptotic subfamilies, the most important, the Bax complex and the synchronous suppression of p53, which causes the first control point to miss serious gene errors and that there are no proteins that annul these cells sick.