Question

Cancer cells are essentially cells out of control. They continuously go through Mitosis without stopping

causing them to crowd other cells and eventually growing on top of each other forming a lump
commonly referred to as a tumor.
Based on your knowledge of mitosis what is one way you could develop a drug to treat cancer?
We do not expect you to be a medical expert. You do not have to have the tools/ability to
perform this. Think about how cells replicate with your knowledge of mitosis and the cell cycle to
form a detailed answer. You do not need to look up common medical procedures/treatments
that doctors use. What makes sense to you as a biology student?
To earn full points:
Include in your answer a detailed explanation of what you would do and why? How are you
only targeting the cancer cells and not normal healthy cell? What does the treatment process
do? How does this stop uncontrolled cell growth? (5pts)
●
●
Include labeled diagrams/sketch with your solution. Do not copy/paste a searched image.
(5pts).

Answer 1

One way to develop a drug to treat cancer would be to target the proteins or enzymes within the cancer cells that are responsible for the uncontrolled growth. For example, many cancer cells rely on higher levels of an enzyme called telomerase, which is involved in cell division and replication, to survive. By developing a drug that specifically inhibits or blocks the production of this enzyme, we can target and stop the uncontrolled cell growth while leaving healthy cells unaffected. Additionally, by targeting other proteins and enzymes involved in the cell cycle and in DNA damage repair, we can also reduce the proliferation of cancer cells. In order to ensure accuracy and precision for the treatment, we could also make use of antibodies that have been engineered to target and bind to specific cancer cell surface molecules. Labeled diagrams/sketches can help illustrate the process and show how a drug could be designed to target cancer cells specifically.