quote:Plain old bad luck plays a major role in determining who gets cancer and who does not, according to researchers who found that two-thirds of cancer incidence of various types can be blamed on random mutations and not heredity or risky habits like smoking.
The researchers said on Thursday random DNA mutations accumulating in various parts of the body during ordinary cell division are the prime culprits behind many cancer types.
They looked at 31 cancer types and found that 22 of them, including leukemia and pancreatic, bone, testicular, ovarian and brain cancer, could be explained largely by these random mutations essentially biological bad luck.
The other nine types, including colorectal cancer, skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma and smoking-related lung cancer, were more heavily influenced by heredity and environmental factors like risky behaviour or exposure to carcinogens.
Overall, they attributed 65 percent of cancer incidence to random mutations in genes that can drive cancer growth.
Yea, I figured as much without the study just as I'm sure most people assume, since we all know people that smoked and died of old age while we know people that didn't smoke and died of lung cancer.
Certainly the moral isn't 'hey look, it's okay to smoke!' since that leads to plenty of other issues but it's interesting none the same.
I can't wait until we have the technology to determine if my zany regimen of daily pills as a dietary supplement is aiding in my overall good health or if that's genetics too.
Yep, modern tech is now allowing knowledge to supplant old wives tales thanks to the field of genomics. Want to live past 80? Lifestyle is a biggie, but even a puritanical existence precludes it without the right genetic makeup.
Now if only we could manage to bring the big3 cancer killer rates down, which have been essentially flat for 50 years, and have remained remarkably tenacious in the face of a full frontal assault.
I had to go to a memorial yesterday for someone who was gone less than a month after being formally diagnosed with liver cancer. None of this makes me feel any better.
I had to go to a memorial yesterday for someone who was gone less than a month after being formally diagnosed with liver cancer. None of this makes me feel any better.
I bury people all the time who have died from cancer. It's causing me to rethink the way I respond to their question "Why me?"
Significantly, breast and prostate cancer were not included in this study.
Since these are the most common cancers among women and men respectively, in the absence of any evidence supporting random mutation for those 2 types, the 65% conclusion figure applies only to the cancer types in the study.
The figure as reported is misleading if the qualifier of breast/prostate cancer not studied is omitted...as the CBC headline does. The Star's headline is more accurate.
One thing we do know for a fact is that poor people have more health problems than rich people and uneducated people have more health problems than educated people.
And another thing we know for an absolute fact is the grocery stores in the richest areas of N America are much different to those in poor areas - THEY'RE INCREDIBLE. EXPENSIVE. ORGANIC. HEALTHY.
Loads of good stuff here. Organic - but expensive.
Do the rich know something? The food the rich eat is so superior to the food the poor eat, but it's also way more expensive. And we know for an absolute fact, the poor have more health problems than the rich. Here's the funny thing, while the rich people in places like Pasadena and San Jose and West Vancouver (highest income in Canada) are eating super expensive healthy organic food, the media is telling the rest of us poor slobs we could never feed our growing population without GMOs and pesticides. And sales of expensive luxury cars and yachts have nevr been higher.
Why me? Because you're poor.
Throughout USA and Canada there are areas of cities called 'food deserts' where the only grocery store within miles has nothing but cheap unhealthy crap for sale. Guaranteed to cause health problems. It has nothing to do with luck. Just google cities food deserts and see for yourself.
Does your grocery store look like this? If it does you could be living in a food desert. We know all about how those people have worse health than the rich people.
The same guys who are trying to persuade us we just have bad luck, are the ones buying that incredibly wonderful high quality food at the 'Whole Foods' and other nice stores across the country for high high prices.
which is effectively evolution at work. Evolution is driven by genetic mutation, not all of which is "good" mutation. The "bad" mutation results in things like cancer, but over time, some mutations will occur that will not end in cancer and over a very very long time result in the evolutionary process of our species.
Why do so many North American white kids get leukemia? Go to any hospital and close to 95% of all patients in the leukemia rooms are white kids. Leukemia in children is unknown of in Africa, Asia and South America.
There's definitely something wrong in the food, water or the environemnt that produces leukemia here in North America.
One thing we do know for a fact is that poor people have more health problems than rich people and uneducated people have more health problems than educated people.
Yes, but not because of the reasons you state. They simply do not have enough. Period.
We know exactly what's going on in the poorest areas of the country - food deserts.
And it has bugger all to do with luck. Read up on it.
I know all about food deserts. We have used innovative GIS system to map things you can only dream of, including food deserts, and link them to all kinds of things. But they don't cause cancer.
Why do so many North American white kids get leukemia? Go to any hospital and close to 95% of all patients in the leukemia rooms are white kids. Leukemia in children is unknown of in Africa, Asia and South America.
There's definitely something wrong in the food, water or the environemnt that produces leukemia here in North America.
And why do only black kids get certain diseases? You have just proved the theory of genetic mutation.
What's amazing is when a pastor or preacher tells people they can eat poison and not be harmed by the poison as long as they say a prayer before eating the poison. I wonder if preachers tell people they can avoid cancer just by praying? If it's only luck that causes cancer, if might be a good idea to start praying a lot.