• Question: How does someone develop cancer?

    Asked by benhart13 to Anna, Jonathan, Samantha, Sam on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Hi Ben,

      Cancers are groups of cells which are dividing uncontrollably. Normally they develop because of changes to genes within our genetic make up – known as mutations. These can occur for several reasons – for example a mutation passed down from your parents, radiation (including sunlight) and chemicals. Being a pathologist is quite a dangerous job – we handle the chemical formaldehyde regularly which is known to cause cancer.

    • Photo: Samantha Weaver

      Samantha Weaver answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Cancers tend to run in families – this is because your genetic make up is a major factor in predetermining whether or not you are likely to develop cancer. This is why one person can smoke for years and not develop lung cancer but another person may not have even smoked themselves, but been exposed to other people’s smoke (passive smoking) and develop lung cancer. Being exposed to harmful substances such as cigarette smoke, sunlight and chemicals increases the chances of your DNA mutating leading to the development of cancer.

    • Photo: Sam Chilka

      Sam Chilka answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      All cancers are caused by mutations in genes which make these genes faulty. The cells with the damaged genes then grow uncontrollably. As the others have said, gene mutations can be passed on from your parents, or caused by radiation, sunlight, or chemicals like cigarette smoke. However some people get cancer who haven’t had it passed down in their family or been exposed to radiation or chemicals, because some types of gene mutation can happen accidentally while cells are dividing. Faulty human cells are programmed to “self-destruct”, but sometimes the self destruct program fails and the faulty cell survives and may then turn into a cancer.

    • Photo: Jonathan Kay

      Jonathan Kay answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      There are a couple of comments about sunlight. They’re right about cancer. But exposure to sunlight helps you make Vitamin D, and we’re just discovering that lots of people in our country don’t have enough Vitamin D. We don’t yet know how to balance these two effects.

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