How long does cancer exist?When was the first case diagnosed and what type of cancer was it?
Okay I just want to know if cancer has been around forever. Can someone give me more info on this disease’s origin.
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5 Comments
mattnocal7 on February 26th, 2010
Cancer has probably been around since the beginning of life.
Cancer is cell respoduction gone out of control. The causes are highly varied and range from genetic to toxins that damage DNA to radiation that damages DNA.
Damaged or defective DNA code that controls cell reproduction may cause the cell to duplicate itself non-stop, and thus is cancerious.
Your body regularly has cancer like cells pop up but your immune system can kill them if they are found. But if your immune system doesn’t find it there will be a cancerious growth.
I’ve heard biologists and oncology researchers say that if you (or any other complex life form) lives long enough you will die of cancer. Meaning that if you could remain healthy in all other aspects, eventually a cancer cell will go unchecked and grow.
adnhack on February 26th, 2010
since the sun exists….. the sun is the primitive thing can cause cancer in the skin, so i think its very old, but before people dont know how to call it
c_d0gg2003 on February 26th, 2010
Cancer has been around as long as life itself, with the potential for it to develop in any multicellular organism. It has been a hot topic in modern medicine because prior to the advent of antibiotics and advanced lifesaving techniques, people most often died of acute disease or traumatic injury. Nowadays, we have the “luxury” of dying of chronic illnesses related to old age, such as cancer and heart disease.
As far as the history of diagnosing cancer goes, the diagnosis for any type of cancer was previously called “consumption.” It wasn’t until well into the 20th century that doctors began differentiating between cancer types at any meaningful level.
If you’re interested, the reason why people tend to get cancer as they get older is a pretty complicated process that still isn’t fully understood, but it ultimately all boils down to mutations in DNA. Cancer is not a condition that just suddenly develops overnight. A cell or group of cells may develop abnormalities, but still be noncancerous at that point (a condition called “precancerous”). Part of what makes cancer so difficult to treat is the fact that by the time a group of cells become a full-blown malignancy, they have already picked up so many survivalist mutations that they are extremely difficult to kill. And in a manner analogous to the way bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, cancer cells can become resistant to treatments like chemotherapy because though a large number of the cancer cells may be killed, a few that have a mutation enabling them to survive the treatment chemicals will survive and reproduce – so in time, the only cancer cells you have left are resistant to a particular treatment or treatments. And it isn’t as simple as going in and cutting the cancer out, either – because by the time a group of cells are a full-blown cancer, they have gained the ability to delocalize, thus making it literally impossible to ever remove every single malignant cell via surgery.
Emily on February 26th, 2010
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Evil J on February 26th, 2010
Will we all are born with the cancer causing cell its just that its dormant so as far as it existed that would have to be when man first existed