In simple terms, Normal cell growth is tightly regulated and controlled by many checkpoints… cancer cells arise when cells stop responding to/or being regulated by these checkpoints. Step A: Is chaotic and unregulated proliferation of cells that have stopped responding to cell cycle regulators Step B: Accumulation of genetic mutations due to step A, normal versus cancerous cells…
1. A carcinogen or random error during cell division results in an aneuploidic cell being created.
2. Aneuploidic cell replicates.
3. These new aneuploidic cells replicate more.
4. This results in cells with different types of aneuploidy. Some cannot survive because they are too unstable.
5. Others are stable enough to survive and continue replicating, but have not yet stumbled upon a combination of chromosomes and genes that are cancerous. These are pre-neoplasms and they die off more-or-less as regular cells do.
6. Eventually after many cell generations a cancerous combination is created. This is the cancer cell.
It’s not about the amount of mutations one ‘must have’ in order to develop cancer, it’s about where/in which process the mutation takes place (ie cell cycle, processes which inhibit or promote growth/transcription/translation, etc.). There is no cut-off.
We are born and continue to have millions of mutations throughout our lifetime, some which are corrected/caught, some which go undetected – both harmless and harmful. It’s about the characteristics of the mutation (there any many types) and details of where/ what pathway it is affecting and how through emotional blockage, environmental toxins, chronic stress and the Standard American Diet .
Having said that, keep in mind the more mutations you acquire, the higher the chances that one of those maybe a cancerous one. So protect yourself and refrain from purposely exposing yourself to conditions known for being harmful (ie: for instance no sunscreen on the beach)!
Lots of things are carcinogenic, but we think we understand how ionising radiation is. See, you have DNA, and DNA has a particular sequence and structure. Radiation is… OK, for simplicity’s sake, it’s a form of energy, and when this form of energy smacks into DNA, it alters the structure of the DNA and causes a mutation.
Now, DNA mutates all the time. It’s how evolution works, kind of, but with cancer the mutations are never beneficial. Instead, you get rapidly dividing cancerous cells that mutate out of control and interfere with bodily functions. The danger of cancer cells is that they spread, and generally secondary cancers are nastier than primaries.
Heaps of things can cause DNA to mutate in a non beneficial way. While we haven’t uncovered all the specifics, we know for sure that radiation is one of the primary causes of cancer. Anything mutagenic would most likely have this effect.
This is the simplest explanation I can give, and it’s probably been oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy, I hope this provides you with a start on your quest to learn things.
Denis O’Malley, survived cancer and have since studied it, for 18 years.
Most normal cells with a nucleus, regularly reproduce themselves on a schedule that reflects how fast they wear out. Some, maybe most, MD’s that talk about cancer assume that any damaged cell DNA can readily become a tumor, if irritated. I have never heard of a way that could happen. If a cell is damaged, it may be repaired or continue to operate if the damage isn’t deadly.
There’s not a lot (that I’ve seen) in the literature that describes this; it just seems energy-economical for survival reasons. This logically would apply to DNA damage that affected genes that are not usually activated (expressed), 90% of them. Additionally, many ancient genes are permanently turned-off and can’t be expressed. If one or more of them was also altered/damaged would it make energy sense to replace the old cell by initiating mitosis, off schedule?
That’s a question, not an answer, but I am looking for stimulating discussion on my critique of cancer dogma vs my theory of cancer.
That DNA damage would be corrected in the normal replication process (Mitosis) when it comes around in “the schedule.” Excepting radiation, if there is a way for what are called carcinogens to get thru the double cell membrane and then into the nucleus to damage the specie’s family jewels, its DNA.
I haven’t found it demonstrated, and if a lifelong smoker, for instance, can live without getting any cancer, then smoking can’t be a cause. If carcinogens do not cause cancer in every case, they can’t be causative under scientific theory. It seems to work under “lazy science” which is popular in the medical business, however.
So, how does a normal cell become a cancer. The killer characteristic of cancer is unregulated reproduction of the cell into a rapidly growing mass that interferes with, and ultimately causes failure, of an organ. Would later damage to a gene that controls sexuality in the embryo, for instance, cause a cell to ignore replication safeguards that controls mitosis? The damage is generally to p53, recognized as a tumor suppression gene.
Start here: Apoptosis in cancer: from pathogenesis to treatment.
As I see it, a normal cell becomes cancer when the apoptosis protection fails, and that failure seems to be by blockage of the irreversible suicide signal during mitosis. Can it happen at any other time? I confess I can’t think of how or why. IOW, would damage to, say, a gene that controlled the proteins that created the digestive system in the embryo, cause a cell, anywhere, to grow uncontrollably?
The same protective protein class governed by the p53 gene has to fail, in every kind of cancer, and the odds are so fantastically high that radiation or copy error would affect the same bit of DNA on the same gene, every time, means that something common to all cells is causing all those different cancers. The statistical data supports a general breakdown of cellular protections associated with a level of frailty.
Just one, but it must evade the auto-correct, repair process after it’s checked for errors during, and after, the cell replication process, mitosis. All ten trillion cells but neurons, in our bodies are constantly replaced on a wear schedule & when damage has been done. Over 1 billion per hour are replaced, and any mistake in the order of the 3 billion-plus DNA instructions is a mutation. 99% of those errors are corrected by one gene in every nucleus that controls the process from beginning to end.
If repair is impossible an irreversible suicide signal is sent to the cell. For unknown reasons, some cells escape this safeguard and continue to grow. If they grow uncontrollably, they are malignant tumors.
Forgive how long it has taken to upload this video response for you.
I hope you find this beneficial for you and your loved ones.
Ryan Stuart, Integrative Oncology & Holistic Health 🙂