Normal cellular markers can be detected in which cells?

• A. Benign
• B. Malignant
• C. Benign and malignant
• D. Neither

Answer: (C)

Normal cellular markers reflect a cell’s identity and basic physiology, and they can be present regardless of whether a cell is benign or malignant. Cancerous transformation changes many features, but it often doesn’t remove all the markers that define a cell’s lineage or differentiation. So malignant cells can still express these normal markers, just within a possibly altered pattern or level. That’s why normal markers can be detected in both benign and malignant cells, whereas malignancy is usually inferred from additional abnormal features such as marker changes, invasion, or atypical morphology. For example, tumors of epithelial origin often still show cytokeratins, while lymphoid malignancies can express normal lymphocyte markers—indicating lineage rather than benignity or malignancy on their own.