-
Asked by Byrner2 to Mark, Anne, Florence, Neil, Sinead on 10 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Shane O.
-
Mark Collins answered on 10 Nov 2015:
Unfortunately we do not know the exact cause of every cancer, we know that there are some cancer causing substances and these are called carcinogens as well as other items like asbestos, tobacco smoking, alcohol, Sun/UV etc that we would see in our everyday and there is also genetics, some of us have cancerous cells already in our bodies and this is outside of our control.
The best advice is to eat healthy, stay active, over a third of cancers are related to the patient being overweight. If you eat healthily, get involved with physical activity, take up a new sport or activity and this will reduce your chances.
-
-
Sinead Balgobin answered on 16 Nov 2015:
Cancer is a word that describes a lot of diseases- which also have a lot of causes. Cells become cancerous when their genetic code gets broken, or mutated, and they stop behaving like normal cells: they start to keep multiplying without dividing, and can make tumours, or attack healthy cells that can affect anywhere in your body.
There are lots of things that can make these mutations occur: it can be already in your genetics, it might be smoking, or exposure to UV light from the sun.
Like Mark says, all we can do is, if we can, avoid things that might give us cancer, and try and be as healthy as possible.
-
Florence McCarthy answered on 18 Nov 2015:
Cancer arises out of an uncontrolled growth of cells which starts to affect the body or specific organs in the body (when the cancer is named as a specific type eg. lung, brain etc). Uncontrolled cell growth essentially means that the normal balance of cells dividing, growing and dying to be replaced by more cells is off balance and cell either do not know when to die to they divide faster than they should do. This causes the cell growth to be uncontrolled and leads in many cases to cancer. One of the biggest questions we face as scientists today is what causes this to start and there are many causes known and more to find out. We know that some viruses cause it, we know that some chemicals cause it, we know that overexposure to the sun causes it and we know that smoking causes it so it appears that wherever our bodies have been stressed it may be an outcome. We also know that leading a healthy lifestyle helps to guard against it so the best advice is to ensure you eat well and are healthy.
Comments