2. Introduction to Cancer Cells and Targeting

This chapter gives a brief introduction to the structure of cancer cells and their properties, and how cancer cells differ from normal cells. In order to provide a thorough understanding of how cancer cells are formed, a brief introduction about the different biomolecules present in cells—namely, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids—is described. In cancer cells, it is observed that there are distinct changes in the nucleus, mitochondria, ribosome, and cytoskeleton, which are the organelles in the cells, and hence the structure and function of these organelles in normal and cancer cells are discussed. The causes of cancer, types of cancer, techniques for selective targeting of cancer, and gene therapy are explained in detail in this chapter.