• Question: how does cancer start?

    Asked by chantel to Arthur on 10 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Arthur Dyer

      Arthur Dyer answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      This is one of my favourite questions so far Chantel!

      Cancer starts when we get a number of mutations in our DNA (I’m not sure if you know what DNA is yet but it’s sort of a list of instructions for our cells).

      When we get enough mutations added up (They can be caused by things like smoking, sunbathing or even just errors when our cells make a copy) then cancer starts.

      There’s 6 signs that a cell is a cancer cell which are:

      (1) cancer cells grow really quickly
      (2) they ignore signals that might stop their growth
      (3) they won’t die like a normal cell will
      (4) they cause blood vessels to grow towards them (so they can get food and oxygen)
      (5) they can multiply forever
      (6) they invade and spread to distant sites

      Once a cell picks up all of these mutations (plus sometimes even more!) they become cancer

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