• Question: People say cancer is in all of us. Is that true? Is it inside of us and something triggers it off? Thanks. x

    Asked by tiri to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      No cancer is not inside all of us. Cancer is caused because cells which are in your body can sometimes change into harmful cancerous cells which make you ill. This change happens in some people but not in others and there are things which can increase the risk of this happening like smoking.

      So when people say cancer is in all of us basically what they mean is that we all have cells in our body (our whole body is made up of cells!) which may mutate into these cancer harmful cells… not that we all have cancer. And something like smoking for a long period of time may be a trigger for these normal cells to change into harmful cancer cells.

    • Photo: Sally Barber

      Sally Barber answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Cancer is just the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells. This happens when the genetic material (DNA) of a cell becomes damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumor. Many things can trigger the changes in the cells DNA, smoking can alter the DNA in your lungs to cause lung cancer and ultraviolet light can alter the DNA in your skin to cause skin cancer. Having an unhealth diet and not doing any exercise can also trigger cancer. Cancer experts say that maintaining a healthy bodyweight, making changes to our diet and taking regular physical activity could prevent about one in three deaths from cancer in the UK.

    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      I’m not too sure about the answer to this question. I don’t think people know 100% how cancer occurs or how to prevent it. Hopefully in years to come we will be able to answer this question.

    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells. We don’t have cancer present normally. A trigger, such as radiation, causes the cell division process to become abnormal and a cancer develops.

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Cancer is the uncontrolled division of cells, so in a way it’s a natural biological process. Normally all cells self-destruct after they reach a certain age, and cancer can also be caused by the cells failing to die, or making copying errors.

      It’s difficult to say more precisely what triggers it off, because there are so many different types of cancer, and so a range of potential causes.

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