• Question: why is there cancer and where did it all come from?

    Asked by lauraandsophie to Emma, Jen, Joseph, Michael, Mona on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Emma Bennett

      Emma Bennett answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Cancer is a genetic disease caused by mutations in peoples genes which means that cells can keep dividing and growing out of control when they shouldn’t be.

      There are lots of different factors that can cause cancer and one of them is old age, this is why cancer seems to be more of a problem now than it was in history as people are living longer. As you get older you are more likely to get mutations in your genes, most will have no obvious effect but some, if they are in the right genes, can cause cancer.

      It is possible to inherit certain gene mutations from your parents which make you more likely to get cancer, but this does not mean that you will actually get cancer.

      Environmental factors are a big cause of cancer and cancer causing agents (carcinogens) can be found in chemicals, sunlight, food and water. Since we come into contact with carcinogens everyday out bodies have developed lots of different ways to try and protect us.

      Alternatively

    • Photo: Michael Taggart

      Michael Taggart answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      It’s not my field of work but I think …. most cells in the body grow, replicate or repair themselves over time and these processes are controlled by homeostatic mechanisms that regulate something called the cell cycle. Cells become cancerous when the cell cycle regulation has gone wonky (sometimes environmental influences, sometimes because of infection, sometimes because of the influences on protein expression of particular genes) and certain cells replicate in a rather uncontrolled manner. To keep doing so they then need to be ‘fed’ by a blood supply solely for that purpose and gradually a mass of tissue (tumour) develops and on it goes…Sometimes these can be large enough to be detected (maybe with a scan of some sort or maybe even by feeling a lump under the skin) and, if seen early enough, surgically removed with a good chance of success. Or sometimes if it is a common form of cancer then healthy people can have routine examinations and lab tests to check if there is any early sigmn of cancer cells (e.g. scanning for breast cancer or performin lab tests on a biopsy for cervical cancer). If cancerous cells escape a tumour in to the blood stream and travel around to multiple parts of the body then it becomes more difficult to treat them. If you are interested in finding a bit more out about this – for example, why are there so many different types of cancers and some that can be detected/treated and some that can’t – then you could look at Cancer Research UK’s official page where there is lots of helpful information:
      http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerandresearch/all-about-cancer/

Comments