Cancer Causes Heredity The vast majority of cancers are non-hereditary, which are called sporadic cance rs.

Hereditary cncers are primarily causedby an inherited genetic defect. Less t han 0.3% of the population carriers of a genetic mutation which has a large effe ct on cancer risk. Thet cause less than 3-10% of all cancer. Somer of these synd romes include: - certain inherited mutations in the genes BRCA1 andf BRCA2 witrh more than 75% chance of breast cancer and ovarian cancer - Li-Fraumeni Syncrome due to mutations of p53 a

Diet and exercise Diet, physical inactivity, and obesity are related to approximately 30 35% of canc er cases. In the United States excess body weight is associated with the develop ment of many types of cancer and is a factor in 14 20% of all cancer deaths. Physi cal inactivity is believed to contribute to cancer risk not only through its eff ect on body weight but also through negative effects on immune system and endocr ine system. Diets that are low in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and high in processed or red meats are linked with a number of cancers. A high salt diet is linked to gastric cancer, aflatoxin B1, a frequent food contaminate, with liver cancer, a nd Betel nut chewing with oral cancer. This may partly explain differences in ca ncer incidence in different countries for example gastric cancer is more common in Japan with its high salt diet and colon cancer is more common in the United S tates. Immigrants develop the risk of their new country, often within one genera tion, suggesting a substantial link between diet and cancer. Infection Main article: Infectious causes of cancer Worldwide approximately 18% of cancers are related to infectious diseases. This proportion varies in different regions of the world from a high of 25% in Africa to less than 10% in the developed world. Viruses are usual infectious agents th at cause cancer but bacteria and parasites may also have an effect. A virus that can cause cancer is called an oncovirus. These include human papill omavirus (cervical carcinoma), Epstein-Barr virus (B-cell lymphoproliferative di sease and nasopharyngeal carcinoma), Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (Kaposi's Sarc oma and primary effusion lymphomas), hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses (hepato cellular carcinoma), and Human T-cell leukemia virus-1 (T-cell leukemias). Bacte rial infection may also increase the risk of cancer, as seen in Helicobacter pyl ori-induced gastric carcinoma. Parasitic infections strongly associated with can cer include Schistosoma haematobium (squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder) and the liver flukes, Opisthorchis viverrini and Clonorchis sinensis (cholangiocarc inoma). Radiation Up to 10% of invasive cancers are related to radiation exposure, including both ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation. Additionally, the vast majority o f non-invasive cancers are non-melanoma skin cancers caused by non-ionizing radi ation from ultraviolet radiation. Sources of ionizing radiation include medical imaging, and radon gas. Radiation can cause cancer in most parts of the body, in all animals, and at any age, alth ough radiation-induced solid tumors usually take 10 15 years, and can take up to 4 0 years, to become clinically manifest, and radiation-induced leukemias typicall y require 2 10 years to appear. Some people, such as those with nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome or retinoblastoma, are more susceptible than average to devel oping cancer from radiation exposure. Children and adolescents are twice as like ly to develop radiation-induced leukemia as adults; radiation exposure before bi

rth has ten times the effect. Ionizing radiation is not a particularly strong mu tagen. Residential exposure to radon gas, for example, has similar cancer risks as passive smoking. Low-dose exposures, such as living near a nuclear power plan t, are generally believed to have no or very little effect on cancer development . Radiation is a more potent source of cancer when it is combined with other can cer-causing agents, such as radon gas exposure plus smoking tobacco. Unlike chemical or physical triggers for cancer, ionizing radiation hits molecul es within cells randomly. If it happens to strike a chromosome, it can break the chromosome, result in an abnormal number of chromosomes, inactivate one or more genes in the part of the chromosome that it hit, delete parts of the DNA sequen ce, cause chromosome translocations, or cause other types of chromosome abnormal ities. Major damage normally results in the cell dying, but smaller damage may l eave a stable, partly functional cell that may be capable of proliferating and d eveloping into cancer, especially if tumor suppressor genes were damaged by the radiation. Three independent stages appear to be involved in the creation of can cer with ionizing radiation: morphological changes to the cell, acquiring cellul ar immortality (losing normal, life-limiting cell regulatory processes), and ada ptations that favor formation of a tumor. Even if the radiation particle does no t strike the DNA directly, it triggers responses from cells that indirectly incr ease the likelihood of mutations. Medical use of ionizing radiation is a growing source of radiation-induced cance rs. Ionizing radiation may be used to treat other cancers, but this may, in some cases, induce a second form of cancer. It is also used in some kinds of medical imaging. One report estimates that approximately 29,000 future cancers could be related to the approximately 70 million CT scans performed in the US in 2007. I t is estimated that 0.4% of current[when?] cancers in the United States are due to CTs performed in the past and that this may increase to as high as 1.5 2% with 2007 rates of CT usage. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun can lead to melanoma an d other skin malignancies. Clear evidence establishes ultraviolet radiation, esp ecially the non-ionizing medium wave UVB, as the cause of most non-melanoma skin cancers, which are the most common forms of cancer in the world. Non-ionizing radio frequency radiation from mobile phones, electric power transm ission, and other similar sources have been described as a possible carcinogen b y the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Heredity The vast majority of cancers are non-hereditary, which are called sporadic cance rs. Hereditary cancers are cancers that are primarily caused by an inherited gen etic defect. Less than 0.3% of the population are carriers of a genetic mutation which has a large effect on cancer risk. They cause less than 3 10% of all cancer . Some of these syndromes include: certain inherited mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 with a more than 75% ri sk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Li-Fraumeni syndrome (various tumors such as osteosarcoma, breast cancer, soft t issue sarcoma, brain tumors) due to mutations of p53 Turcot syndrome (brain tumors and colonic polyposis) Familial adenomatous polyposis an inherited mutation of the APC gene that leads to early onset of colon carcinoma. Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC, also known as Lynch syndrome) can include familial cases of colon cancer, uterine cancer, gastric cancer, and ovarian cancer, without a preponderance of colon polyps. Retinoblastoma, when occurring in young children, is due to a hereditary mutatio n in the retinoblastoma gene. Down syndrome patients, who have an extra chromosome 21, are known to develop ma lignancies such as leukemia and testicular cancer, though the reasons for this d ifference are not well understood. Physical agents Some substances cause cancer primarily through their physical, rather than chemi

cal, effects on cells. A prominent example of this is prolonged exposure to asbestos, naturally occurri ng mineral fibers which are a major cause of mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer . Other substances in this category include both naturally occurring and synthet ic asbestos-like fibers, such as wollastonite, attapulgite, glass wool, and rock wool, are believed to have similar effects. Nonfibrous particulate materials that cause cancer include powdered metallic cob alt and nickel, and crystalline silica (quartz, cristobalite, and tridymite). Usually, physical carcinogens must get inside the body (such as through inhaling tiny pieces) and require years of exposure to develop cancer. Physical trauma a nd inflammation which may cause various kinds of cancers. Hormones Some hormones factor in the development of cancer by promoting cell proliferatio n. Hormones are imortant agents in sex related cancers such as cancer of the bre ast, endometrium, prostate, ovary and testis and also of thyroid cancer and bone cancer. An individuals hormone levels are mostly determined genetically, so this may par tly explain the presence of some cancers that run in families that do notseem t o have any cancer causing genes. For example, the daughters of women wh have bre ast cancer have significantly higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone than t he daughters of women without breast cancer. These higher hormone levels may exp lain why women have the risk of contractin the disease even in the absence of th e breast cancer genes. However, non-genetic factors are also relevant: obese people have higher levels of some hormones associated with cancer and a higher rate of those cancers. Wome n who take hormone replacement therapy have a higher risk of developing cancers associated with those hormones. On the other hand, people who exercise far more than average have lower levels of these hormones, and lower risk of cancer. Oste osarcoma may be promoted by growth hormones. Some treatments and prevention appr oaches leverage this cause by artificially reducing hormone levels, and thus dis couraging hormone-sensitive cancers. Other Excepting the rare transmissions that occur with pregnancies and only a marginal few organ donors, cancer is generally not a transmissible disease. The main rea son for this is tissue graft rejection caused by MHC incompatibility. In humans and other vertebrates, the immune system uses MHC antigens to differentiate betw een "self" and "non-self" cells because these antigens are different from person to person. When non-self antigens are encountered, the immune system reacts aga inst the appropriate cell. Such reactions may protect against tumour cell engraf tment by eliminating implanted cells. In the United States, approximately 3,500 pregnant women have a malignancy annually, and transplacental transmission of ac ute leukaemia, lymphoma, melanoma and carcinoma from mother to fetus has been ob served. The development of donor-derived tumors from organ transplants is exceed ingly rare. The main cause of organ transplant associated tumors seems to be mal ignant melanoma, that was undetected at the time of organ harvest. though other cases exist In fact, cancer from one organism will usually grow in another organ ism of that species, as long as they share the same histocompatibility genes, pr oven using mice; however this would never happen in a real-world setting except as described above. In non-humans, a few types of transmissible cancer have been described, wherein the cancer spreads between animals by transmission of the tumor cells themselves . This phenomenon is seen in dogs with Sticker's sarcoma, also known as canine t ransmissible venereal tumor, as well as devil facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils. Pathophysiology

Cancers are caused by a series of mutations. Each mutation alters the behavior o f the cell somewhat. Cancer is fundamentally a disease of failure of regulation of tissue growth. In order for a normal cell to transform into a cancer cell, the genes which regulat e cell growth and differentiation must be altered. The affected genes are divided into two broad categories. Oncogenes are genes wh ich promote cell growth and reproduction. Tumor suppressor genes are genes which inhibit cell division and survival. Malignant transformation can occur through the formation of novel oncogenes, the inappropriate over-expression of normal on cogenes, or by the under-expression or disabling of tumor suppressor genes. Typi cally, changes in many genes are required to transform a normal cell into a canc er cell. Genetic changes can occur at different levels and by different mechanisms. The g ain or loss of an entire chromosome can occur through errors in mitosis. More co mmon are mutations, which are changes in the nucleotide sequence of genomic DNA. Large-scale mutations involve the deletion or gain of a portion of a chromosome. Genomic amplification occurs when a cell gains many copies (often 20 or more) o f a small chromosomal locus, usually containing one or more oncogenes and adjace nt genetic material. Translocation occurs when two separate chromosomal regions become abnormally fused, often at a characteristic location. A well-known exampl e of this is the Philadelphia chromosome, or translocation of chromosomes 9 and 22, which occurs in chronic myelogenous leukemia, and results in production of t he BCR-abl fusion protein, an oncogenic tyrosine kinase. Small-scale mutations include point mutations, deletions, and insertions, which may occur in the promoter region of a gene and affect its expression, or may occ ur in the gene's coding sequence and alter the function or stability of its prot ein product. Disruption of a single gene may also result from integration of gen omic material from a DNA virus or retrovirus, and resulting in the expression of viral oncogenes in the affected cell and its descendants. Replication of the enormous amount of data contained within the DNA of living ce lls will probabilistically result in some errors (mutations). Complex error corr ection and prevention is built into the process, and safeguards the cell against cancer. If significant error occurs, the damaged cell can "self-destruct" throu gh programmed cell death, termed apoptosis. If the error control processes fail, then the mutations will survive and be passed along to daughter cells. Some environments make errors more likely to arise and propagate. Such environme nts can include the presence of disruptive substances called carcinogens, repeat ed physical injury, heat, ionising radiation, or hypoxia (see causes, below). The errors which cause cancer are self-amplifying and compounding, for example: A mutation in the error-correcting machinery of a cell might cause that cell and its children to accumulate errors more rapidly. A further mutation in an oncogene might cause the cell to reproduce more rapidly and more frequently than its normal counterparts. A further mutation may cause loss of a tumour suppressor gene, disrupting the ap optosis signalling pathway and resulting in the cell becoming immortal. A further mutation in signaling machinery of the cell might send error-causing s ignals to nearby cells. Staging Ovarian cancer staging is by the FIGO staging system and uses information obtain ed after surgery, which can include a total abdominal hysterectomy, removal of ( usually) both ovaries and fallopian tubes, (usually) the omentum, and pelvic (pe ritoneal) washings for cytopathology. The AJCC stage is the same as the FIGO sta ge. The AJCC staging system describes the extent of the primary Tumor (T), the a bsence or presence of metastasis to nearby lymph Nodes (N), and the absence or p resence of distant Metastasis (M). Stage I - limited to one or both ovaries IA - involves one ovary; capsule intact; no tumor on ovarian surface; no maligna

nt cells in ascites or peritoneal washings IB - involves both ovaries; capsule intact; no tumor on ovarian surface; negativ e washings IC - tumor limited to ovaries with any of the following: capsule ruptured, tumor on ovarian surface, positive washings Stage II - pelvic extension or implants IIA - extension or implants onto uterus or fallopian tube; negative washings IIB - extension or implants onto other pelvic structures; negative washings IIC - pelvic extension or implants with positive peritoneal washings Stage III - microscopic peritoneal implants outside of the pelvis; or limited to the pelvis with extension to the small bowel or omentum IIIA - microscopic peritoneal metastases beyond pelvis IIIB - macroscopic peritoneal metastases beyond pelvis less than 2 cm in size IIIC - peritoneal metastases beyond pelvis > 2 cm or lymph node metastases Stage IV - distant metastases to the liver or outside the peritoneal cavity Para-aortic lymph node metastases are considered regional lymph nodes (Stage III C). As there is only one para-aortic lymph node intervening before the thoracic duct on the right side of the body, the ovarian cancer can rapidly spread to dis tant sites such as the lung. The AJCC/TNM staging system includes three categories for ovarian cancer, T, N a nd M. The T category contains three other subcategories, T1, T2 and T3, each of them being classified according to the place where the tumor has developed (in o ne or both ovaries, inside or outside the ovary). The T1 category of ovarian can cer describes ovarian tumors that are confined to the ovaries, and which may aff ect one or both of them. The sub-subcategory T1a is used to stage cancer that is found in only one ovary, which has left the capsule intact and which cannot be found in the fluid taken from the pelvis. Cancer that has not affected the capsu le, is confined to the inside of the ovaries and cannot be found in the fluid ta ken from the pelvis but has affected both ovaries is staged as T1b. T1c category describes a type of tumor that can affect one or both ovaries, and which has gr own through the capsule of an ovary or it is present in the fluid taken from the pelvis. T2 is a more advanced stage of cancer. In this case, the tumor has grow n in one or both ovaries and is spread to the uterus, fallopian tubes or other p elvic tissues. Stage T2a is used to describe a cancerous tumor that has spread t o the uterus or the fallopian tubes (or both) but which is not present in the fl uid taken from the pelvis. Stages T2b and T2c indicate cancer that metastasized to other pelvic tissues than the uterus and fallopian tubes and which cannot be seen in the fluid taken from the pelvis, respectively tumors that spread to any of the pelvic tissues (including uterus and fallopian tubes) but which can also be found in the fluid taken from the pelvis. T3 is the stage used to describe ca ncer that has spread to the peritoneum. This stage provides information on the s ize of the metastatic tumors (tumors that are located in other areas of the body , but are caused by ovarian cancer). These tumors can be very small, visible onl y under the microscope (T3a), visible but not larger than 2 centimeters (T3b) an d bigger than 2 centimeters (T3c). This staging system also uses N categories to describe cancers that have or not spread to nearby lymph nodes. There are only two N categories, N0 which indicate s that the cancerous tumors have not affected the lymph nodes, and N1 which indi cates the involvement of lymph nodes close to the tumor.