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Escaping destruction

When you are healthy, every part of your body has just the right number of cells: the birth and death of each one is carefully controlled. Any cells that start to multiply too much or in the wrong place are either stopped from growing, or forced into suicide by the process of apoptosis. In cancer cells, these instructions are either missing, altered or ignored. So cancer cells escape destruction, and continue to multiply in an uncontrolled way.

Cell death is controlled in the process of apoptosis.
Cell death is controlled in the process of apoptosis.
Dr Gopal Murti/Science Photo Library

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