• Question: How many cancer cells are we born with?

    Asked by i have changed my name to Cristina, Gemma, Loan, Michael, Praveen on 9 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 588hrtd33.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Hi cats,

      Technically we are not born with cancer cells. We can be born with a mutation that will cause cancer in the future or with a predisposition to have cancer but cancer cells usually appear after we have accumulated some damage to the cells and then at some point one cell loses it and becomes a cancer cell, wanting to multiply a lot and get to other parts of the body. This basically happen because all the mechanisms that we have to control how cells multiply are broken (either by inherited mutations or by mutations generated by our lifestyle, like UV light or tobacco)

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