What cuases cancer?

Answer 1

Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases. Cancer occurs when cells become abnormal and keep dividing and forming more cells without control or order. All organs of the body are made up of cells. Normally, cells divide to produce more cells only when the body needs them. This orderly process helps keep us healthy. If cells keep dividing when new cells are not needed, a mass of tissue forms. This mass of extra tissue, called a growth or tumor, can be benign or malignant.

Malignant tumors are cancer. Cancer cells can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs. Also, cancer cells can break away from a malignant tumor and enter the bloodstream or the lymphatic system. This is how cancer spreads from the original (primary) tumor to form new tumors in other parts of the body. The spread of cancer is called metastasis.

Most cancers are named for the type of cell or the organ in which they begin. When cancer spreads, the new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells and the same name as the primary tumor. For example, if lung cancer spreads to the liver, the cancer cells in the liver are lung cancer cells. The disease is called metastatic lung cancer (not liver cancer).

Our current understanding of the causes of cancer is incomplete, but it is clear that cancer is not caused by an injury, such as a bump or bruise. And although being infected with certain viruses may increase the risk of some types of cancer, cancer is not contagious. No one can "catch" cancer from another person.

Cancer develops gradually as a result of a complex mix of factors related to environment, lifestyle, and heredity. Scientists have identified many risk factors that increase the chance of getting cancer. They estimate that about 80 percent of all cancers are related to the use of tobacco products, to what we eat and drink, or, to a lesser extent, to exposure to radiation or cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) in the environment and the workplace. Some people are more sensitive than others to factors that can cause cancer.

Many risk factors can be avoided. Others, such as inherited risk factors, are unavoidable. It is helpful to be aware of them, but it is also important to keep in mind that not everyone with a particular risk factor for cancer actually develops the disease. In fact, most do not. People at risk can help protect themselves by avoiding risk factors where possible and by getting regular checkups, so that if cancer develops, it is likely to be found early.

Below are some of the factors that are known to increase the risk of cancer:

1. Tobacco
2. Diet
3. Sunlight
4. Alcohol
5. Radiation
6. Chemicals and Other Substances
7. Hormone Replacement Therapy
8. Diethylstilbestrol (DES)

Answer 2

a very complicated question I will try to answer as simply as possible essentially cancer is caused when the bodys immune system is overwhelmed by too much toxins either viral,chemical, radiation,enviromental toxins any way whic ever one is the trigger for the specific cancer ie liver cancer can be from alcohol toxicitity or lung from smoking tobacco products inhaling a xenobiotic material ie asbestos or any substance foreign to the body like coal dust any way the body can not handle the overload and so it starts to breakdown even nutritional defeciencies can play a role then you factor in monochromal expansion T cells that should replicate 50x may only replicate 20-30Xso the T cells are overwhelmed and the diseases Rna starts rewriting the chemical messages being sent out to make only mutated cancer cells in stead of health ones and then the macrophages in turn start attacking the healthy cells and the cancer starts spreading like an invading army and the only way to stop or prevent it from winning is to increase the intra cellular glutathione levels which is the bodys master antioxidant kind of like sending for reinforcements then the body can mount a major offensive against the cancer and in many cases win but there must be a major lifestyle change to keep up the defenses hope this helps best wishes Gorbalizer

Answer 3

Cells that divide and invade tissues in the body.

To say what cuases cancer as a blanket answer is difficult as it depends which kind of cancer you are talking about.

Lung cancer for example; you might say is caused by smoking, however, 20% of females with lung cancer have never smoked. So why have they got lung cancer.

Some scientists attribute it to diet, obesity, alcohol consumption.

However, it is my own personal opinion that it is a combination of environmental influences - all the atomic bombs that have gone off around the world, all of the radioactive pollution, covered up by corporations. All the additives we've consumed, car fumes, chemicals we inhale. They are all more prevelant in the West, as is overnutrition, which is another factor in cancer - Vitmamin A can actually encourage lung cancer growth.

I reckon the causes are known but are covered up to stop law suits being filed.

Answer 4

Cancer happens because a cell gets the instructions wrong on how to reproduce itself. Instead of reproducing once to replace itself, it makes multiple copies which in turn make multiple copies. All the energy of the cell goes into making more copies and it doesn't do the function it was originally intended to do.

In a nutshell, that's what cancer is. The causes of cancer (the things that jumble a cell's instructions) are too varied to address here.

Answer 5

Some people no matter how healthy they are get cancer and other people get cancer for a varity of reasons, like smoking. People who don't smoke can get lung cancer and so on. It all has to do with how a cell in the bosy is formed.

Answer 6

As I discovered in a lyrics from the band Yes on the album Time and a Word from the 70´s .... Hate, is the root of cancer..... If this is really the case, all Bushes, Blairs, Puttins and Saddams as well as all the other criminals and mass murderers will probably soon become obsolete

Answer 7

in my humble opinion...

your environment...

hereditary (obviously your environment while in utero...)

but mostly the pesticides on the foods you eat and the chemicals in your lotions and hair dyes and soaps....

after i was diagnosed with skin cancer... here is what i was told to do to help prevent it....


I was told to give up dairy,
take vitamin c,
take flax oil pills,
buy organic foods,
use natural products to wash your clothes,
your hair,
eat organic meat,
use non flouridated toothpaste,
rid your kitchen of anything plastic that might touch food....
use a cast iron frying pan....
take hot showers and scrub skin with a softbrush
use a sauna if you can....
exercise...
research immunizations and the risks....
we are avoiding sun screen (the chemicals in it)

I was diagnosed with skin cancer a year ago and have made tons of changes...

you can email me at:

[e-mail]

Answer 8

Cervical cancer, a virus.
the rest include:
lowered immune system
up-regulated immune system
heredity
chemicals
eating burned food
exposure to too much x-rays or nuclear waste

oh yes and hormone replacement!
too much stress or grief
sun exposure
inhaling asbestos
cigarettes
constant irritation of a mucous membrane
microwaves(if exposed too much)

Answer 9

It appears everything does. I would like to hear a report from the FDA, or the CDC of things that does not cause cancer...

Answer 10

It can be in your genes (from your parents) or can be caused by exposure to hundreds of differents toxins in big enough amounts. Radiation, toxic chemicals, too much sun, cigarettes, these are just a few. Depends on your body and it's sensitivities, dear