Read the passage and answer the following questions:
Cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases of human beings and is a major cause of death all over the globe. More than a million Indians suffer from cancer and a large number of them die from it annually. The mechanisms that underlie development of cancer or oncogenic transformation of cells, its treatment and control have been some of the most intense areas of research in biology and medicine. In our body, cell growth and differentiation is highly controlled and regulated. In cancer cells, there is breakdown of these regulatory mechanisms. Normal cells show a property called contact inhibition by virtue of which contact with other cells inhibits their uncontrolled growth. Cancer cells appears to have lost this property. As a result of this, cancerous cells just continue to divide giving rise to masses of cells called tumors.
What property do normal cells exhibit to control their growth?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Contact inhibition
The passage states that “Normal cells show a property called contact inhibition by virtue of which contact with other cells inhibits their uncontrolled growth.”
In the body, cell growth and division are tightly controlled. One such control is contact inhibition: when a normal cell comes in contact with other cells, its growth is stopped. This keeps cells from growing out of control. Cancer cells lose this property, so they go on dividing and form tumours.
Metastasis is the spread of cancer cells from a malignant tumour to distant parts of the body, so it is a property of cancer cells, not of normal cells. Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels.