Majority of cancer cases just the luck of the draw

[Neferti]

Majority of cancer cases just the luck of the draw, scientists suggest

CANCER patients often wonder “why me?” Does their tumour run in the family? Did they try hard enough to avoid risks like smoking, too much sun or a bad diet?

Lifestyle and heredity get the most blame but new research suggests random chance plays a bigger role than people realise: Healthy cells naturally make mistakes when they multiply, unavoidable typos in DNA that can leave new cells carrying cancer-prone genetic mutations.

How big? About two-thirds of the mutations that occur in various forms of cancer are due to those random copying errors, researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported Thursday in the journal Science.

Whoa: That doesn’t mean most cases of cancer are due solely to “bad luck.” It takes multiple mutations to turn cells into tumours — and a lot of cancer is preventable, the Hopkins team stressed, if people take proven protective steps. Thursday’s report is an estimate, based on a math model, that is sure to be hotly debated by scientists who say those unavoidable mistakes of nature play a much smaller role.

But whatever the ultimate number, the research offers a peek at how cancer may begin.

And it should help with the “why me” question from people who have “done everything we know can be done to prevent cancer but they still get it,” said Hopkins’ Dr. Bert Vogelstein, a pioneer in cancer genetics who co-authored the study. “They need to understand that these cancers would have occurred no matter what they did.”

More here:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/scien ... 690506c1ce

Apart from the fear of "getting cancer" that people have, the other fear is of getting Alzheimers, and not knowing who you are, less alone who others are and still being alive.

I think that "dying in your sleep" is what most people would choose, if they could.

[Rudolf Wilhelm]

I wonder what prompted your interest in this subject, Neferti. Is there something you're not telling us?

If you've got the gene for a certain type of cancer, you'll get it when due to age your immune system is weaker than it once was, and despite the huge drop in the number of people who smoke nowadays the incidence of cancer has gone through the roof compared to when everybody and his neighbour's dog used to smoke as a tension-buster and social palliative.

My brother died from 'head-and-neck' cancer as a direct result of the alcohol in beer swilling around his gums as he would drink very moderately down at the club twice a week. That was told to him directly by Professor Chris O'Brien who was his treating oncologist. (Two years after my brother died, O'Brien himself died of a brain tumour at quite a young age).

Personally I believe cancer is intentional by Nature as a method of culling the herd to prevent over-crowding and to allow local food resources to be sufficient for purposes.

The more important question is not how to stop cancer, but how to treat the patient so that he and she suffer the least anguish and pain before the final end.

[Black Orchid]

Hi Rudy and welcome

I tend to agree with you. I think you either have the gene or not. My MIL died of throat cancer and never smoked a day in her life. Others smoke til they are 100 and never have a sick day. That doesn't mean that we should play Russian roulette with our lives but I think we either have a predisposition to it or not.

[Rudolf Wilhelm]

Hi Rudy and welcome

I tend to agree with you. I think you either have the gene or not. My MIL died of throat cancer and never smoked a day in her life. Others smoke til they are 100 and never have a sick day. That doesn't mean that we should play Russian roulette with our lives but I think we either have a predisposition to it or not.

'Rudy' ~

Thank you for your welcome, Black Orchid.

Both my parents died in their early 50's from cancer of the larynx and tongue cancer, and my brother from cancer of the gums. My eldest brother succumbed to lung cancer. The one who died with the most years to him was one of my brothers at age 63.

I'm age 73 ... and so I've been given a bonus 10 years for Good Behaviour ... ahem.

[Neferti]

Both my parents died in their early 50's from cancer of the larynx and tongue cancer, and my brother from cancer of the gums. My eldest brother succumbed to lung cancer. The one who died with the most years to him was one of my brothers at age 63.

I'm age 73 ... and so I've been given a bonus 10 years for Good Behaviour ... ahem.

You asked why I posted the article/topic ... answer ... because it was something I read and was of interest. Possibly because things were rather quiet here at the time .... they do get that way and some of us start a TOPIC to get people interested to comment. That's what Forums are for, isn't it?

Anyway, I am sorry to hear that cancer seems to affect your family, most seem to be the type of cancer that indicates that dreadful habit called SMOKING was the cause?

I wonder what they will blame lung cancer on (and those cancers you mention) when NOBODY smokes any more? Plus what will Governments tax at 80% (cigarettes) to give to Health?

[skippy]

I do find these studies interesting as we all know somebody that always ate the "right foods didn't drink or smoke but still got the big C" .
Life just deals bad hands sometimes.
The likes of Keith Richards proves longevity is down to good luck rather than good management.

[Neferti]

I do find these studies interesting as we all know somebody that always ate the "right foods didn't drink or smoke but still got the big C" .
Life just deals bad hands sometimes.
The likes of Keith Richards proves longevity is down to good luck rather than good management.

Keith is only 73, apparently. I know people much older with less wrinkles.

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[AiA in Atlanta]

You can do what you can do to prevent cancer but in the end, it is out of your hands. Met a 90-year-old man in Japan who had a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other and was in perfect health but his son had died long ago of cancer. My grandmother smoked unfiltered cigarettes for decades and never seemed to experience any side effects except a loss of taste and smell ...

[Agnes]

My mother was a smoker and in the end quite heavy and constant- it didnt surprise me at all when she was diagnosed with lung cancer but at 55 far too young to die- I know cancer can strike those who dont smoke either but if you practice habits that are known to contribute to it then I think the odds then become weighted in the favour of cancer- I gave up when I found out about my mothers diagnosis and that may have saved our lives at least on that level-

I am very sad for children who become victims of cancer and it is so common and so unfair- when we hear of a cancer cure it is always for one type strain-but there are so many of these- we need a cancer vaccine and when you hear stories that drug companies are suppressing cures in favour of the bottom line that makes me despair-

[Neferti]

When I was doing my Scottish Family History, I found that on one female's death certificate it was noted that she had died from cancer, which surprised me .... this was way back in about 1848, so cancer has been around for a very long time. She was my ggg grandfather's niece and she was in her early 40s so I presume it was breast cancer, since it only said "cancer". There were no other deaths from cancer that I found, most died from "old age".