How Cancer Arises?
Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, it is caused by changes to genes that
control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide.
Genetic changes that cause cancer can be inherited from
our parents. They can also arise during a person’s lifetime as a result of
errors that occur as cells divide or because of damage to DNA
caused by certain environmental exposures. Cancer-causing environmental
exposures include substances, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke, and
radiation, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun.
Each person’s cancer has a unique combination of genetic
changes. As the cancer continues to grow, additional changes will occur. Even
within the same tumor, different cells may have different genetic changes. In
general, cancer cells have more genetic changes, such as mutations in DNA, than
normal cells. Some of these changes may have nothing to do with the cancer;
they may be the result of the cancer, rather than its cause.
The genetic changes that contribute to cancer tend to affect three main
types of genes—proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and DNA repair genes.
These changes are sometimes called “drivers” of cancer.
Proto-oncogenes are involved in normal cell growth and division. However,
when these genes are altered in certain ways or are more active than normal,
they may become cancer-causing genes (or oncogenes), allowing cells to grow and
survive when they should not.
Tumor suppressor genes are also involved in controlling cell growth and
division. Cells with certain alterations in tumor suppressor genes may divide
in an uncontrolled manner.
DNA repair genes are involved in fixing damaged DNA. Cells with mutations
in these genes tend to develop additional mutations in other genes. Together,
these mutations may cause the cells to become cancerous.
As scientists have learned more about the molecular changes that lead to
cancer, they have found that certain mutations commonly occur in many types of
cancer. Because of this, cancers are sometimes characterized by the types of
genetic alterations that are believed to be driving them, not just by where
they develop in the body and how the cancer cells look under the microscope.
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