Question

Causes of Cancer and Treatments

What are some causes of cancer? Think about environmental, lifestyle, viral, and genetic factors. Know what is meant by targeted therapies for cancer – how are they different from more traditional approaches like radiation and chemotherapy?

Answer 1

Changes (mutations) in the DNA within cells leads to cancer.

Environmental factors include chemicals, radiations such as UV from sun rays.

Lifestyle factors include tobacco, smoking and excessive use of mobile phones from which radiations emit.

Several viruses are known to cause several types of cancers such as

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is known to cause Burkitt's Lymphoma

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) can cause liver Cancer

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) can cause liver Cancer

Mutations in the genes are the cause of genetic cancer and can pass from parent to the child. This takes place when there is an error a fault in the genes in an egg or sperm cell.

The substances that block the growth of cancer by hindering specific molecules which are involved in the growth and spread of cancer is called targeted cancer therapies.

They differ from traditional therapies in many ways

Targeted therapies differ from standard chemotherapy in several ways:

• Standard chemotherapies act on all rapidly dividing normal and cancerous cells whereas targeted therapies act on specific molecular targets that are associated with cancer.
• Targeted therapies are often cytostatic, on contrary standard chemotherapy agents are cytotoxic.