Hallmarks of Cancer
Start with the big picture
Cancer progression involves multiple interacting capabilities rather than a single change. Classical hallmarks include sustained proliferative signaling, escape from growth suppression, resistance to cell death, replicative immortality, angiogenesis, and invasion and metastasis. Deregulated cellular energetics and avoidance of immune destruction are also recognized, while genome instability and tumor-promoting inflammation can help other hallmarks develop. Emerging areas, including phenotypic plasticity, non-mutational epigenetics, polymorphic microbiomes, and senescence, remain under study. Examples of mechanisms include oncogene activation, tumor-suppressor loss, telomere maintenance, metabolic reprogramming, and changes in immune signaling. The framework also helps organize how these processes may be considered in therapeutic targeting.
What you'll learn
- Classify classical, next-generation, enabling, and emerging hallmarks of cancer.
- Relate altered growth signaling and growth-suppressor escape to tumor-cell proliferation.
- Describe mechanisms associated with apoptosis resistance and replicative immortality.
- Explain how angiogenesis, metabolic reprogramming, and immune evasion support tumor development.
- Distinguish enabling traits from the hallmarks they can help cancer cells acquire.
Continue your study
Work through the complete notes and reinforce the topic with the study tools available in the full lesson.
