Research conducted at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has revealed that two-thirds of cancer cases can be blamed on random mutations of cells rather than on genetics, environment or lifestyle factors.
The study published in the 2 January edition of the Science journal looked at 31 cancer types and found that 22 of them, including ovarian, testicular, brain ad leukaemia, can be attributed to DNA cells dividing and mutating.
Author of the study and professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, Bert Vogelstein says that cancer is a matter of “bad luck” rather than good or bad genes.
That said, it doesn’t all come down to luck – the study found that a person’s genes, environment and bad lifestyle habits played a significant role in making up the remaining one third of cancer cases. The other nine cancers looked at in the study, including colorectal, skin and lung cancers, “were presumably due to a combination of bad luck plus environmental or inherited factors”, the University said.
The research excluded breast and prostate cancers, which are the first and second most common cancers in women and men respectively.
These findings mean that regular screenings and early detection of cancer are more necessary than ever to catch and treat it.
Read more at The Courier Mail.
