What I learned (Connor)

I learned from the papers about how much evolution can affect cancer. I learned how much of an effect p53 has on whether cancer will develop to a stage that is terminal or not, and I also learned that p53 can determine whether an individual will even develop cancer at all. I learned that cancer is regulated to some extent by a gene (p53) and until now I had never known that there was a gene responsible for preventing the uncontrollable duplication of cells. I thought that cancer was as simple as a cell being unable to stop duplicating itself, but now I have an appreciation for the fact that it is a much more complicated phenomenon and this fact makes me realize that cancer is even more dangerous than I had previously thought. This seems to explain to me why a cure for it has eluded the hard working scientific community for so many years.