ABSTRACT
Throughout this text, we have studied various defenses that the body erectsagainst the appearance of cancerous growths. Many of these defenses are inherent in cells, more specifically in their hard-wired regulatory circuitry. The most obvious of these are the controls imposed on cells by the apoptotic machinery, which is poised to trigger the death of cells that are misbehaving or suffering certain types of damage or physiologic stress. The pRb circuit and the DNA repair apparatus are similarly configured to frustrate the designs of incipient cancer cells.
