Smoking causes cancer not only because smoking is a nasty habit, but because when you smoke and

you therefore inhale the smoke you are also inhaling over 18 different kinds of chemicals that are proven to cause cancer. Once inhaled the chemicals go into our lungs and go throughout our entire body. The chemicals damage DNA and they also distort important genes. Not only does smoking cause cancer, if you are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke you are also susceptible to cancer because you inhale the smoke as well. Also if you are around smokers you are also inhaling the smoke, mainstream smoke is just as bad even worse. As previously mentioned the smoke can damage your DNA and when that happens it makes your cells reproduce like crazy and then the cells cannot recognize whether or not they are able to work or not. The cell grows in size and separates into two with the complete and same DNA and then those grow in size and split into two and so on. This can be passed on to daughter cells, then they replicate like crazy and that causes even more abnormal things to go on in your body. The result of this is a lot of unnecessary cells which can block, compress, and even destroy some nearby structures which are usually important. It can also damage your body tissues. That is basically cancer. Some of the useless cells break away from the large mass of cells and go to other organs and this causes the cancer to spread, metastasis. Cancer can spread through the lymphatic system or blood stream. Mutation cause cancer cells to live longer than they should which causes them to build up because they last longer and new cells are made. The cells which have been produced from the cells growth and splitting lose the amount of vital controls which is what a mutation is. Your genes have codes that tell your body what to do, which are DNA. Some, tumor suppressor genes, tell your cells to stop multiplying, but when those are damaged because of the smoke they stop and since your cells are not told not to, they replicate. However, it takes more than a few DNA mutations to cause cancer which is why it is most common in older people but the more you smoke the earlier you can get diagnosed with cancer, sometimes a little too late. There are two types of tumors, malignant and benign. Malignant tumors cause cancer because the cells spread to other organs of the body. Benign tumors arent cancerous because the cells dont spread and they can be removed and usually dont come back. Tumors are formed when old cells are not told to be useless and so they live longer. And new cells are produced without being needed. This build up of tissue is a tumor. However not all cancers start off with a tumor, in some cases you never even develop a tumor.

So to sum things up, Cancer starts in the basic unit of life in our body, which are cells. Cells have DNA to tell them what to do, DNA are like codes. The smoke from cigarettes which contain nicotine is inhaled when you smoke, are near a smoker, or inhale environmental tobacco smoke. The chemicals, over 80 of them, which are cancer causing, go into your lungs and then go throughout your entire body through your lymphatic system or blood stream. Once in your body the chemicals cause the cells to become damaged and distort genes. The damaged cells grow in size and then the larger cell splits into two separate cells. The cells have the same DNA and the complete DNA. Basically two cells are formed from one. Because your DNA is disrupted, DNA are like codes, they dont tell your cells not to produce any more cells and it also causes them to live longer. Since the old cells live longer and new cells are being made there are more cells in your body at one time which causes a buildup of cells known as tumors. The tumors can be malignant, or cancerous, and the defective cells can spread to nearby tissues and cause the cancer to spread, metastasis. They can also be benign, not cancerous, where cells do not spread.

Works Cited
"Lung Cancer." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer>. "National Cancer Institute." National Cancer Institute - Smoking. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/tobacco/smoking>. "Smoking and Cancer." : Cancer Research UK. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/smoking-and-cancer>. "Smoking and Cancer." Cancer Information. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.meds.com/lung/smoking/smoking.html>.