• Question: Is it true that everyone has cancer cells but there is something that can trigger it?

    Asked by saphireflames to Alexis, Dr D, Helen, Jasmine, Mario on 18 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by 10cp.
    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Certainly true that cells with mutations form all the time but we have ways of dealing with that. There’s also a lot of energy in our immune system that goes looking for weird cells that might be dangerous.

    • Photo: Alexis Barr

      Alexis Barr answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Well cancer cells start off as normal, healthy cells in our body and, due to mutations in DNA, they can become cancerous. Many cancer cells may be eliminated before they have chance to form a proper tumour and so we would never know we had them.
      Cancer can be triggered by several mutations in a cell’s DNA. This often takes many years, which is why the risk of getting cancer increases as we get older. Some viruses can also act as a trigger for cancer to start. One example is Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that can cause cervical cancer. Luckily, we have a vaccine against HPV now which should prevent women from getting infected by HPV.

    • Photo: Mario Ruiz

      Mario Ruiz answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Not everyone has cancer cells, but some people carry in their genetic information some instructions (genes) to produce those cells. However, it’s all about statistics and lifestyle, so if you have inherited genes for cancer, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get cancer for sure. Lots of factores needs to be combined for that to happen

    • Photo: Jasmine Penny

      Jasmine Penny answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      It is true that cancer cells start of as normal cells and then something goes wrong and they start dividing and producing more cells without any control. But like Mario has said, there are many factors which cause a cell to go wrong and as Andrew says our bodies do there best to fight these changes most of the time.

Comments