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Also overweight people have more cells than thin people. So there is bigger risk to malicious cell mutations. Taller people have same problem https://www.thegua

by atupis 9y ago

Also overweight people have more cells than thin people. So there is bigger risk to malicious cell mutations. Taller people have same problem https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/01/taller-people-more-likely-to-get-cancer-say-researchers https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/01/taller-peopl...

nonbel 9y ago
Yes. The current thought is that cancer arises by tissue stem cells accumulating mutations at a low rate until it goes out of control. Every division there is some chance of error. If you have more divisions, there is a higher chance of cancer. If you always keep this in mind: cell division -> cancer, so much will make sense. Anything requiring an increase in cell division will increase the chances of cancer in that tissue (smoking damages lung cells which need to be replaced, uv damages skin cells, being larger means you have more cells). That is not to say that immune surveillance for clearing these bad cells plays no role, or that DNA damage sensitivity/repair can't be increased/decreased, or that those rates need be similar in different species. However, the main idea behind the entire modern cancer research programme is that cell division -> cancer. More info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC54830/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC54830/
- rsync 9y ago
  "If you always keep this in mind: cell division -> cancer, so much will make sense." I am not so sure this is a good heuristic. An athlete, or even a moderately active (fit) person is inducing quite a bit of cell division due to the teardown and regrowth of muscle and bone, etc., caused by exercise. However, activity and exercise seem to be (strongly) negatively correlated with cancer. Instead, I think a better mental model is the winnowing of a population. When you subject your (muscles/bones/heart/lungs) to a highly stressful exertion, some of the cells just can't maintain that output and so they are killed off, or commit suicide by the process of apoptosis. But if you never subject your cell population to an apoptosis-inducing level of stress, you're just cultivating an increasingly weak population of cells. I highly recommend the book by Nick Lane titled: Power, Sex, Suicide which explores these topics... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Sex,_Suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Sex,_Suicide

by atupis 9y ago

nonbel 9y ago

Yes. The current thought is that cancer arises by tissue stem cells accumulating mutations at a low rate until it goes out of control. Every division there is some chance of error. If you have more divisions, there is a higher chance of cancer. If you always keep this in mind: cell division -> cancer, so much will make sense. Anything requiring an increase in cell division will increase the chances of cancer in that tissue (smoking damages lung cells which need to be replaced, uv damages skin cells, being larger means you have more cells). That is not to say that immune surveillance for clearing these bad cells plays no role, or that DNA damage sensitivity/repair can't be increased/decreased, or that those rates need be similar in different species. However, the main idea behind the entire modern cancer research programme is that cell division -> cancer. More info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC54830/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC54830/

rsync 9y ago
"If you always keep this in mind: cell division -> cancer, so much will make sense." I am not so sure this is a good heuristic. An athlete, or even a moderately active (fit) person is inducing quite a bit of cell division due to the teardown and regrowth of muscle and bone, etc., caused by exercise. However, activity and exercise seem to be (strongly) negatively correlated with cancer. Instead, I think a better mental model is the winnowing of a population. When you subject your (muscles/bones/heart/lungs) to a highly stressful exertion, some of the cells just can't maintain that output and so they are killed off, or commit suicide by the process of apoptosis. But if you never subject your cell population to an apoptosis-inducing level of stress, you're just cultivating an increasingly weak population of cells. I highly recommend the book by Nick Lane titled: Power, Sex, Suicide which explores these topics... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Sex,_Suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Sex,_Suicide