• Question: What causes cancer

    Asked by alex_your_boy6 to James, Hugh, Katherine, Matt, Shannon on 8 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by Matthew-chelsea2.
    • Photo: Hugh J. Byrne

      Hugh J. Byrne answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      I’m not an expert, but an explanation is that genetic mutations cause some cells to start multiplying out of control. The original mutations can be due to radiation, chemicals or other stress factors.

    • Photo: Katherine Benson

      Katherine Benson answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      Again I’m also not an expert, but I agree with Hugh. Cancer is essentially cells that will not stop multiplying and can be caused by many different risk factors, exposure to certain chemicals or radiation.

    • Photo: James Brown

      James Brown answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      There are different ways to “cause” cancer- sometimes its something you are born with (in your DNA- a mutation- like breast cancer which can run in a family), sometimes it is an exposure to something toxic in your environment (like smoking) and sometimes it can be caused by chance- as your cells are damaged every day just by the process of living (your body replaces all its cells – trillions of them- every 7 years apparently! thats a lot of chances for something to go wrong). It can also be a combination of all of these.

      The results of all this can lead to damage to your DNA which changes the way that cell behaves, like continually growing when it should stop or die. This uncontrolled growth leads to a cancer.

      The good news is your body/cells have evolved many different ways to stop cells misbehaving (so they cant become cancers)- but they dont always work (and if you do dangerous things like exposing yourself to toxins- like smoking, your body is fighting a losing battle). These protective mechanisms work really really well, thats why we dont all get cancer.

Comments