Cancer in a Nutshell

Cancer cells are not well behaved.

In the simplest terms, cancer is a disease caused by the growth and spread of cells that are not well behaved, that is to say normal cells that have gone rogue. Normal cells go rogue due to errors, or mutations, in genes that are involved in regulating normal cell growth and survival. While normal genes do a good job of ensuring orderly and controlled cell growth, mutated genes cause ‘dysregulated'‘ (a fancy word for “not at all controlled”) growth.  Watching a five-year-old’s soccer match comes to mind. 

Cancer-causing mutations can result from: a) environmental toxins, especially tobacco, b) hereditary predispositions, or c) random errors in cell division that occur naturally. Although it is human nature to attempt to determine a cause for everything that happens to us, good or bad, more and more evidence suggests that most cancers do not have an external cause that can be prevented or avoided. Rather, most cancer-causing mutations appear to be just random errors - or bad luck -  as a natural consequence of the many normal cell divisions needed to keep us alive and healthy. Check into “Random Mutations” for more information why this is so.