What is cancer and how does it relate to the cell cycle? 2. what are proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, and how do they contribute to cancer? 3. what are some things that might make a person have a higher risk of developing cancer? 4. what are some of the major steps that occur in the progression from a single cancer cell to a tumor and then to many tumors spreading throughout the body? 5. as tumors grow and spread, the cells undergo a number of changes. how might the cells in a late stage tumor be different from the original cell that became cancerous? 6. why are different types of cancers named based on where in the body they originate (breast cancer, skin cancer, bone cancer, why does it matter from which organ or tissue type the cancer developed?

interphase

the period of cell growth when the cell synthesizes new molecules and organelles. the cell is not dividing and it constitutes the majority of the time spent in the cell cycle

prophase

changes occur in the nucleus and cytoplasm. the chromatin condenses to form structures (sister chromatids) visible with a light microscope and the mitotic spindle begins to form, but the nucleus is still in tact

prometaphase

the nuclear envelope fragments and the spindle microtubules attach to the kinetochores of the sister chromatids

metaphase

all the cell's duplicated chromosomes are lined up at an imaginary plane equidistant between the poles of the mitotic spindle

anaphase

begins when sister chromatids separate from each other and ending when a complete set of daughter chromosomes arrives at each of the two poles of the cell

telophase

the daughter nuclei form at the two poles of a cell

cytokinesis

the division of a cytoplasm to form two separate daughter cells. usually occurs during telophase during mitosis. this and mitosis make up to mitotic (m) phase of the cell cycle