Running head: CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK

Cancer: hereditary or just bad luck Kevin White COM/156 11/24/13 Andrea Allen

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK Cancer: hereditary or just bad luck

Ever wonder why cancer happens to the healthiest of people? Well it may not be related to health at all. Researchers have shown that cancers like breast and colorectal run through family lines. Doctors suggest that women who have had breast cancer in their family lines get checked up at age 35 instead of 40. The same goes for men, suggested age for a check-up is 50 unless someone in the family such as father or mother have been diagnosed with the disease then they say to be checked at 40. It seems like anything we come in contact with, work around, and even breathe these days can cause cancer and our society seems to focus on these particular factors and do not take into consideration that genetics may be the underlying factor. Even though outside influences such as chemicals and pollution can progress the disease, cancer is a hereditary disease and researchers are finding markers in our DNA that show predisposition to the disease.

Our environment is not just the trees, oceans, and mountains. When it comes to cancer and talking about environment it takes on a whole new meaning. The environment involves not just outside factors such as chemicals and pollution but inside our bodies like birth defects and genetic anomalies. There are actions that people can take to help prevent cancer or even repair damage that may have been done. Changing dietary habits would be the most natural way of helping the human body. There are foods that can decrease our risk of cancer and dark green leafy vegetables are some of the best. These usually contain fiber, folate, carotenoids, and flavonoids. There are other vegetable families that can help also. The allium family of vegetables which include onions, scallions, leeks, and garlic with the latter is the choice. These are easy

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK changes to make to keep the body working as it should but there are outside factors that we

cannot control. A couple of these outside factors are air pollution and exposure to direct sunlight. Other internal environmental factors that cannot be controlled are age and hormonal changes that happen within the body as we get older. There are outside factors that can be controlled and according to the National Cancer Institute Researchers have estimated that as many as 2 in 3 cases of cancer (67 percent) are linked to some type of environmental factor, including use--or abuse--of tobacco, alcohol, and food, as well as exposures to radiation, viruses, and substances in the air, water, and soil. ("Understanding Cancer And The Environment", n.d. para. 2). This means that no one in your family has ever had cancer and it may be that you never contract the disease but by introducing a pathogen that can mutate the gene-gene interaction. The human genetic system is a very well balanced machine and by smoking or doing drugs you are basically throwing a wrench into the system. It is hard to understand why people would do this sort of thing to their bodies knowing the risk that they put on themselves.

To truly understand what cancer is people have to understand what the disease does to the body. The cause of this disease is the result of abnormal gene function. The immune system regulates the growth of normal healthy cells in the body and keeps the unhealthy one in check. When the immune system fails to do this, the unhealthy cells grow at a rapid rate and overcome the healthy cells and overtake the organ or area of the body. There are also stages to cancer going from 0-4 and when stage 4 is reached it is irreversible because it has entered the blood stream and is being spread to the other organs. That is why most people with colorectal cancer die from the liver shutting down because the liver cleanses the blood. According to American Cancer Society Heredity and Cancer (2013), An abnormal change in a gene is called a mutation. The 2

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK types of mutations are inherited and acquired (somatic). Inherited gene mutations are passed from parent to child through the egg or sperm. These mutations are in every cell in the body. Acquired (somatic) mutations are not present in the egg or sperm. These mutations are acquired at some point in the person's life, and are more common than inherited mutations. This type of mutation occurs in one cell, and then is passed on to any new cells that are the offspring of that cell. What they are trying to say is that cancer is a sort of birth defect that is passed down through the DNA of the mother and father. The cardinal feature by which inherited predisposition is recognized clinically is family history. Cancer is common, so some families will contain several cases by chance. There is a spectrum of probability that a given family history reflects inherited predisposition from near certainty of strong predisposition in the rare inherited cancer syndromes, to the possibility of weak effects in familial clusters. (Ponder, 2011, p. 340). Now this brings into question if we are already genetically predisposed to

contracting the disease or do we have a chance to not have to go through it because what hope is there if a person just gives up on life because their mother or father had died from the disease. Well some may have a weaker or stronger predisposition to getting the disease. According to Ponder (2011) that a stronger predisposition involves inheriting the cancer pathway or genome stability. Whereas a weaker predisposition means that you have weak alleles of the pathway or stronger caretaker genes. In the end we can see it is all at the genetic level and not something that just pops up out of thin air. There are three specific genes that are related to the disease. They are proto-oncogenes, oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes. The proto-oncogenes are the genes that control the function of the cell and how often it splits. When the body is injured like receiving a cut and the wound needs to close this gene is turned on and starts to cause the cells to divide so that they

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK grow and close the wound to heal. When this gene starts up when it is not supposed to this is when it becomes an oncogene and this is the beginning of cancer. Cells begin to dived and grow rapidly and out of control and overtaking the healthy cells and killing them off. This is where tumor suppressor genes job begins. Tumor suppressor genes slow down cell division and repair mistakes in the DNA. When these mutate they basically turn off and allow cell division to run rampant and this leads to cancer.

As we can see this disease starts at the genetic level and some may have a predisposition built into their DNA. The most common hereditary cancers are breast cancer and colorectal cancer also known as colon cancer. According to Lindlom and Nordenskjld (1999) From a genetic point of view, malignant diseases can be divided into three main groups depending on the primary event initiating the malignant process (1, 3, 4): Growth stimulation through activation of cellular oncogenes. Absence of normal growth control because of inactivation of a tumor suppressor gene. Accumulation of mutations in critical genes, either through exposure to environmental factors or because of deficient repair of DNA damage. As we know there are many different chromosomes in the DNA make-up of every living thing. Mutations cause abnormalities in the chromosomal makeup and allow them to become rearranged. When this happens this opens the door for the creation of oncogenes.

As it has been shown cancer is a genetic defect that attacks on the cellular level. At its base this disease is in the DNA code of the body. From research it shows that everyone has the potential for the disease but the immune system is supposed to keep it check. Even though

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK outside influence can progress the disease, cancer is a hereditary disease and researchers are finding markers in our DNA that show predisposition to the disease. Between outside influence, genetics, and family history it may seem like there is no hope. People can take measures to help their help prevent the disease and maintain their immune systems by eating right and exercise. But for those that have done all they can and still end up with cancer do not give up hope because researchers are making great leaps in medicine and research.

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Bibliography
Lindlom, A., & Nordenskjld, . (1999, January). Hereditary Cancer. Acta Oncologica, 38(4), 439-447. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/geneticsandcancer/heredity-and-cancer http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/environment/AllPages Ponder, B. A. J. (2011, may). Cancer genetics. Nature, 411(), 336-341. ProQuest.

CANCER: HEREDITARY OR JUST BAD LUCK