By: Lily Lonigan Jan-12-16’ RR

Name Of Article: How Cancer Starts

Publication: Cancer Research UK

Article Author: Prof. Nic Jones

Publication Date: 27 October 2014

URL of Article: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/how-cancer-starts

How Cancer Forms

Cancer starts in our cells. Where the cancer starts is called the primary tumor. It can also grow in our bone marrow or blood cells. Since it can grow in our blood, cancer is not always solid. Cancer starts by growing in one cell but eventually exists in a whole group of them.

Our bodies need the perfect amount of each cell. If there are too many of one kind they will form a lump called a tumor.  Our genes control when a cell will die, and how many times a cell will split. “Together, proteins and RNA control the cell. They decide what sort of cell it will be, what it does, when it will divide, and when it will die.”Sometimes when a cell divides a mutation happens. A mutation is where a cell doesn’t follow directions because its DNA is damaged. The cell keeps dividing to make even more cells, but, since the DNA is damaged the new cells don’t get a full set of DNA, or enough chromosomes. The cells then continue to divide. Each with a mutation.  

I think this is important for all of the people out there who have had or currently do deal with cancer. Some of them might not still understand what it is, or how it formed inside them. This connected to me because many people in my family have had cancer over the past years. This article is also important just to educate people about what cancer is. Better to know than not.

I thought the site I got this from was very helpful. The video included in the article will help people who are visual learners. And I never knew that it was a mutation rather than just one cell doing all the bad work. The cons are it doesn’t say how exactly certain types of cancer form like lung cancer, or skin cancer. It just has one explanation spread out to all types. It also doesn’t say what it might feel like if you had a tumor.

Over all this article was very helpful, and easy for younger people to read. I hope the word spreads to a lot of people. And trustingly you learned something. Cancer is a big deal in this world, and we should be informed.

Works Cited

“How Cancer Starts.” Cancer Research UK. N.p., 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/how-cancer-starts>.