How are cancer cells different from healthy cells?

The principle difference between normal cells and cancer cells is normal cells carry out regulated cell division whereas unregulated cell division occur in the cancer cell.

Explanation:

Cancer is a disease that is caused due to abnormal and unregulated cell division. There are many genes and protein present in our body such as p53 protein, Renitoblastoma tumor suppressor protein that play a significant role in the regulation of cell cycle as well as cell division.

But any type of mutation in these regulatory proteins prevent them to exhibit their normal function. As a result normal regulation mechanism of cell cycle is hampered allowing the damaged cell to enter the mitosis phase which in turn leads to the formation of abnormal cells. They lose the ability to undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis resulting in the formation of tumor cells.

Tumor cells are converted to cancerous cell by various mutation process.