{"id":51875,"date":"2015-01-05T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=51875"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:06","slug":"is-cancer-risk-mostly-affected-by-genes-lifestyle-or-just-plain-bad-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/01\/is-cancer-risk-mostly-affected-by-genes-lifestyle-or-just-plain-bad-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cancer Risk Mostly Affected by Genes, Lifestyle, or Just Plain Bad Luck?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cancer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While cancer can strike anyone \u2014 young or old, unhealthy and healthy \u2014 we do have some idea of what can affect risk. Genetics often play a role, for instance, as do lifestyle habits. But according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University researchers, much of cancer risk may actually be due to mere chance.<\/p>\n

Cancer develops when stem cells of a given tissue make random mistakes, mutating unchecked after one chemical letter of DNA is incorrectly swapped for another \u2014 the equivalent of a cell\u00a0\u201coops.\u201d\u00a0It happens\u00a0without warning, like the body\u2019s roll of the dice.<\/p>\n

For the new study, published in the journal Science, researchers wanted to see how much of overall cancer risk was due to these unpreventable random mutations, independent of other factors like heredity and lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this question that is fundamental in cancer research: How much of cancer is due to environmental factors, and how much is due to inherited factors?\u201d\u00a0Cristian Tomasetti, PhD, a biomathematician and assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health says,\u00a0\u201cTo answer that question, however, the idea came that it would be important to determine first how much of cancer was simply due to\u00a0\u2018replicative chance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To measure this, the researchers plotted the number of stem cell divisions in 31 types of tissues over the course of a lifetime against the lifetime risk of developing cancer in the given tissue. From this chart, the scientists were able to see the correlation between number of divisions and cancer risk \u2014 and from that correlation, researchers were able to determine the incidence of cancer in a given tissue due to replicative chance.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, researchers found that roughly two-thirds of the cancer incidence was due to this replicative chance, or simply \u201cbad luck.\u201d (However, it\u2019s worth noting researchers did not examine some cancers, such as breast and prostate cancers, because of lack of reliable stem-cell turnover information.)<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t assume you\u2019re simply doomed to the hand fate deals you. After additional analysis, researchers found that of the 31 cancers examined, 22 could be explained by \u201cbad luck\u201d \u2014 but for the other nine, there was another <\/em>factor aside from simple chance that likely contributed to the cancer.<\/p>\n

This is presumably because environmental and hereditary factors play a role in development.\u00a0\u201cThere are many cancers where primary prevention has huge positive effects, such as vaccines against infectious agents, quitting smoking or other altered lifestyles,\u201d\u00a0says Tomasetti.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the cancers where risk could be lowered by\u00a0primary preventive practices\u00a0were ones you may expect \u2014 diseases like skin cancer, where limiting sun exposure can lower your risk, as well as lung cancer, where avoiding smoking is key.<\/p>\n

Tomasetti says we can still lower our odds of developing cancer in any and all cases, though, especially as preventative research moves forward. Their analysis just indicates that, for many types of cancers, primary prevention like healthy lifestyle habits may not work as well.\u00a0\u201cThis however does not imply at all that there is not much we can do to prevent those cancers,\u201d\u00a0he says.\u00a0\u201cIt just highlights the importance of secondary prevention, like early detection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since so much of risk is based on random cell division, identifying a mutation before replication goes unchecked throughout the body is, and will continue to be, essential.\u00a0\u201cIt is still fundamental to do what we can in terms of primary prevention to avoid getting cancer, but now we understand better what causes cancer and how relevant the\u00a0\u2018bad luck\u2019\u00a0component is, because we have a measure of it,\u201d\u00a0Tomasetti explains.\u00a0\u201cThis work tells us that randomness plays an important role in cancer, possibly much larger than previously thought. And therefore early detection becomes even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can also look at this new research another way, though, according to Tomasetti.\u00a0\u201cOn one side, it actually strengthens the importance at the individual level to avoid risky lifestyles,\u201d\u00a0he explains.\u00a0\u201cIf my parents smoked all their lives and did not get lung cancer, it is probably not because of good genes in the family, but simply because they were very lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be playing a very dangerous game by smoking,\u201d\u00a0Tomasetti says. See? Healthy habits\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0count.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While cancer can strike anyone \u2014 young or old, unhealthy and healthy \u2014 we do have some idea of what can affect risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}