Two-Thirds of All Cancers Are Caused by One Thing: Your DNA

While environmental factors can play a huge role, the number one cause of cancer is mutations from regular cell replication. Does this mean cancer in humans is simply inevitable?



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Researchers Find Mutation 'Hotspots' That Are Linked to Cancer
"Researchers say they've identified clusters of genetic mutations in proteins that can give rise to cancer, a discovery that may help them zero in on new treatments. Those mutation 'hotspots' occur among families of proteins produced by genes in the body's cells. By sifting through data from nearly 6,000 cancer patients, researchers at the University of Maryland say they found thousands of mutations that occur among those proteins."

Bad luck plays larger role than environmental, genetic factors in determining who gets cancer
"Two-thirds of adult cancer incidence across tissues can be explained not by environmental factors or inherited genes but by bad luck, according to scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The unlucky findings by Johns Hopkins scientists were discovered using a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence across many tissue types. They found that more often than not, cancer in adults is caused by random mutations that occur when stem cells divide."

DNA typos to blame for most cancer mutations
"Each time a cell divides, it provides an opportunity for errors to crop up during DNA replication. In 2015, Vogelstein and one of his co-authors, mathematician Cristian Tomasetti of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, created a stir with an analysis that looked at possible explanations for why some cancers occur more often than others. They concluded that differences in the number of stem-cell divisions in an organ correlated with the frequency of cancers in that area."

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Seeker inspires us to see the world through the lens of science and evokes a sense of curiosity, optimism and adventure.









This episode of Seeker was written and hosted by Trace Dominguez.

[bomaboma]

This is what I have been saying to my friends since my grandma died, she lived her whole life in village, never smoked nor consumed alcohol. She was a vegetarian her entire life. Lived completely on organic diet(there was no such thing as processed food ). She was a perfectly healthy person, until she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when she was 78 and died within 6 months of finding it.

[megagene]

The other one third is caused by this comment section.

[failandia]

next week in media:
DNA is CANCEROUS study says.

in comment section: ''HOW DO I GET RID OF IT? IS THERE A DIET THAT COULD PREVENT DNA IN MY BODY''

[oskareriksson]

Moral of the story: Enjoy life, every single day...

[AbudBakri]

If you go to medical conferences, there is increasing a talk of cancer being more about diet oxidative damage preceding DNA damage. More people are revisiting the mitochondrial origin hypothesis of cancer.

[isukaman]

If Einstein was only a cancer researcher.

[bannanateam]

This is depressing :( the majority of my father's part of my family suffered from one type of cancer :(

[AtheistCitizen]

which is why some families seem to have more cancer, and some no cancer.

[nicholasheimann]

Curative therapy and early detection. Hopefully we will reach a point where it can be detected and stopped before it causes pain or harm to the patient.

[wilfreddv]

100% is caused by DNA (or rather 'errors', or just 'worn down' DNA)
Your environment influences it too, but it still all comes down to DNA (and all the regulations in the cells that go out of whack because of it)

[iHaveGrudgeAgainstUT]

As a 90s kid, I'm confident with future science of curing cancer

[VeganLinked]

I feel like this is an oversimplification of cancer because it's my understanding we all have cancer it's just a matter of whether or not we enable cancer to flourish. Some foods are anti angiogenesis which prevents cancers from establishing a fuel source. Also protein restriction like methionine restriction has been shown to reverse cancer or turn it off. What about epigenetics?

[NeilLopes]

my grandmother lost her life to cancer, my father was diagnosed with it but thank God it was just very early stage and curable, i wonder what my fate will be

[dropj]

Finally, tray with some content that includes scientific studies. I was wondering if this Chanel was still worth it. Glad I stayed long enough to find it out.

[CJTPXuser]

You make everything so much more interesting Trace.

[paulnamalomba]

Great videos, I was shocked when I watched a kurzgesagt video on why larger animals don’t have as much cancer as we do even though they have more cells.

[katiobrien]

I love this channel. It makes me think, and then go do research for myself. Best ever!!

[AffandiAiman]

the background music made the video so inspiring, very nice

[awesomeguy]

The title and first part of the video is common sense, I thought it was something that was not for this channel, but the last minute was really nice

[operatorlink]

The main cause of cancer is that we living longer. In the past not many people live to be 80-100+ years, so cancer was not so common back then. As we get older, there is higher chance we get mutated cells, it is just probability.