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Title: What is Cancer? - Dr Vani Jain Description: The podcast covers basic information on the development of cancer within the body. Transcript This podcast will explain what we know about cancer and how we know that the risk of developing it can be inherited. Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control. There are many different types of cancer depending on which tissue or organ they come from - for example, cancer that begins in the cells of the large bowel is called colon cancer. Normally body cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy. When cells become old or damaged, they are either repaired or they die and are replaced with new cells. This is all occurs in a controlled way and means that damaged cells don’t divide but, sometimes this process goes wrong. The cells don’t die like they should and continue to divide and make cells even though they aren’t needed. If these extra cells form a mass of tissue, this is can lead to the development of a tumor. For cells to divide when they shouldn’t the genetic material or DNA of a cell needs to be damaged or altered in some way. These changes are called mutations and if a cell accumulates a number of mutations, this mutated cell can develop the ability to divide without control. The abnormal cells may also spread to other parts of the body through the blood. This explains why cancer can spread around the body is a process called metastases. Cancer is a common illness with about 1 in 3 people in the UK being diagnosed with cancer during their lives. Most people who get cancer are over 65. It is relatively rare for young people (those under 50) to get cancer. These cancers are called sporadic. It is due mutated cells dividing, as explained earlier but these mutations accumulate in cells over many years and if a particular cell acquires enough of these, it can become cancerous. This is the case with most cancers and if you have only one elderly relative with cancer, you’re not usually at a significantly increased risk of getting the same cancer yourself. People sometimes think that several cases of cancer in their family may be connected, and that they have inherited an increased risk of developing cancer. But only a minority of cancers (5–10%, or less than 1 in every 10 cases) are clearly linked to an inherited change in the DNA. DNA is made up of small packets of information called genes. We all inherit a set of www.le.ac.uk/vgec genes from each of our parents. This includes genes that are important in the control of cell repair and replication called cancer susceptibility genes and when functioning normally, they don’t increase the risk of cancer developing. Inherited or familial cancers are seen when there is a mutation in one of these genes. This mutated gene can be passed from generation to generation and those who carry it have an increased risk of developing cancer. More than one mutation is needed for a cancer to develop. So inheriting a cancer susceptibility gene doesn’t mean a person has cancer but that they are at an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer which is higher than the risk to normal population. The discovery of inherited, cancer susceptibility genes and an increased understanding of their role in the disease, has meant that there are now predictive genetic tests available. These can determine whether an individual with a strong family history of cancer is at an increased risk of developing the disease. www.le.ac.uk/vgec