Question

What is meant by cancer cells and development of drug resistance?

Answer 1

Cancer cells - Cancer cells are those cells which proliferate or divide abonormally, excessively and in an uncoordinated fashion even after there is cessation of stimulus which cause its growth.

These can divide without any control and can invade nearby tissues. They donot undergo cell death as normal cells undergo. They can form tumor cells if there is excessive proliferation.

Drug resistance - Drug resistance is the reduction of effectiveness of a medication/drug for treatment of a disease or certain conditions.

Development of drug resistance in cancer cells refers to the ability of cancer cells to survive and grow inspite of anti-cancer therapies.

Mechanism of development of drug resistance can be :-

• Inactivation of the drug.
• Suppressor of apoptosis (Inhibition of cell death).
• Changing drug targets.
• Altering in drug metabolism.
• Epigenetic changes.