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The development of cancer
Cancer develops when the DNA in the cell nucleus mutates. Genes that regulate cell divisions are damaged. The cell withdraws more and more
from the ordinary control processes of the body, cell division is unstoppable and new cells become cancer cells because of further mutations. Cervical cancer is not an exception to this rule, but with this type of cancer the first step towards malignancy occurs because the DNA of a carcinogenic Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) invades the cell nucleus.
This causes the cell to produce viral proteins, which in turn deregulate various processes within the cell. It is known, for example, that two important genes that can protect the cell against malignant changes are destroyed by these viral proteins. One of these genes has the code for the p53 protein, whose role it is to protect the integrity of the cell nucleus. If DNA in the cell nucleus is damaged, p53 ensures that the damage is recovered. When DNA is damaged irreparably, p53 insures that the cell destroys itself by programmed cell death (apoptosis). a very important cell defense mechanism against malignant change has been destroyed when p53 is no longer working. the cell can then multiply itself uncontrolled, leading to an accumulation of carcinogenic mutations in the next generations of cells.