What can distinguish pathologic hyperplasia from cancer? If the signals that initiate it abate,cell proliferation is "turned off"by various growth inhibitors and the hyperplasia disappears. o It is this responsiveness to normal regulatory control mechanisms that distinguishes pathologic hyperplasia from cancer,in which the growth control mechanisms become dysregulated or ineffective. What can distinguish pathologic hyperplasia from cancer? If the signals that initiate it abate, cell proliferation is “turned off” by various growth inhibitors and the hyperplasia disappears. It is this responsiveness to normal regulatory control mechanisms that distinguishes pathologic hyperplasia from cancer, in which the growth control mechanisms become dysregulated or ineffective