Abstract

Cancer is a genetic disease, meaning it is caused by alterations in genes that control how our cells behave, mainly how they divide and grow. Proteins do a lot of the work in our cells, and genes provide the instructions for making them. Specific gene mutations can cause cells to escape standard growth regulators and turn cancerous. Some cancer-causing gene alterations, for example, enhance the synthesis of a protein that causes cells to proliferate. Others cause a malformed and hence non-functional form of a protein that typically repairs cellular damage to be produced. If the mutations are present in germ cells, the body’s reproductive cells, we can inherit cancer-causing genetic abnormalities from our parents. Such mutations, known as germline mutations, can be identified in every cell of the offspring. Cancer-causing genetic mutations can also be acquired over ones lifespan due to cell division errors or exposure to carcinogenic compounds that damage DNA, such as some chemicals in tobacco smoke, and radiation, such as UV rays from the sun. Somatic (or acquired) alterations are genetic changes that occur after conception. Cancer cells, on average, exhibit more genetic alterations than healthy cells. However, each person cancer has a unique set of genetic mutations. Some of these alterations could be the effect rather than the cause of cancer. Additional alterations will occur as the malignancy progresses. Cancer cells may have diverse genetic alterations even within the same tumor.