• Question: Is there anything that you can do to prevent you from getting cancer?

    Asked by 492cesk43 to Eoin, Ester, Natasha on 16 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Natasha Myhill

      Natasha Myhill answered on 16 Nov 2017:

      Cancer generally occurs randomly in cells so its hard to predict if you might get it in the future or not. However, there are some types of cancer that have associated risk factors. For example, smoking increases the risk of getting lung cancer and using UV tanning beds or getting sunburnt increases the risk of getting skin cancer. These are because they cause more DNA mutations in your cells, so its more likely a cancerous mutation might occur. If in doubt, try and stay fit and healthy!

    • Photo: Ester Gil Vazquez

      Ester Gil Vazquez answered on 17 Nov 2017:

      There’s no point in trying too hard or obsessing about it really, because we don’t have yet models or tools that allow us to predict who is going to develop cancer with certainty – we do have ways of detecting hereditary form of cancer, but these are a minority of cases. Hopefully in the future we’ll have better tools to predict it! But yes, as Natasha said, there are some factors that clearly predispose to cancer, so try to avoid them (mostly tobacco and sun exposure). Don’t become obsessed with all the things you hear may cause cancer though, because there are so many that there is no way of avoiding them and staying sane at the same time.

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