Question: What is cancer?

Adelaide Young answered on 21 Jun 2023: last edited 21 Jun 2023 9:07 am

Everyone’s cells pick up DNA mutations these can be due to environmental influences or someone’s genetics might make them more susceptible to getting DNA mutations. Normally our cells are able to repair this damage and continue functioning as they should. However sometimes the cell is not able to repair the damage and the mutations in the DNA start to accumulate, this causes instability in the DNA and makes mutations more likely to occur. Often these cells will stop functioning properly and will be cleared by the immune system. If the cell is able to evade the immune system eventually a mutation that enables the cell to proliferate outside the normal scope of the original cell might occur and this drives the formation of cancer.