CANCER
Cancer cells only do what cells normally do: grow and divide. But cells that divide out of control are very hazardous. Apoptosis, or cell suicide is one of the most important processes regulating the quantity of cells, and preventing cancer. Cancer cells only develop when the apoptosis mechanisms do not function, or don’t take place in the way they are supposed to. A cell might avoid committing suicide because of a mutation or biochemical blockage in the signals that instruct it to undergo programmed cell death, so that the cell continues to divide, and might develop into a cancer tumour.
In cancer tumours, there are often mutations of the p53 gene, the one responsible for halting cell division. Cervical cancer is due to a virus that disturbs the function of p53. This could result in uncontrolled growth of cells in the cervix and subsequently the development of cancer tumours. When cancer cells develop, the cell itself or the immune system’s T cells try to activate apoptosis. But often, the cancer cell's apoptosis program has been damaged in several places of the signalling process, making it almost impossible to stop the unrestrained cell growth.