Repair or die
In normal cells, gene damage is usually quickly repaired. If the damage is too severe, the cell is forced to die. An important protein called p53 checks for gene damage in normal cells, and kills them if the damage is too great to repair. However, in cancer cells these checking mechanisms are defective. Cancer cells often have an altered p53 protein, which does not work properly, allowing cancer cells to survive, despite their dangerously garbled genetic material.
