Let’s say someone is a cigarette smoker. Each time they light a cigarette, are they chancing the fact that it could contain the carcinogen that will start the cancer that will be an issue for them years later, or is it a gradual build up of carcinogens in the body eventually causing lung cancer? Like, could the hypothetical hot dog I’m eating right now be responsible for cancer years down the line?
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My epidemiologist wife explained it to me (an engineer) so i think i can do a good ELI5 explanation.
Cells will naturally self destruct over time. Just a part of life and they are replaced by new cells.
Mitosis causes cell division. Every time that occurs, you chance making a cell without the ability to self destruct. That cell can still reproduce (mitosis) and now it makes more cells without the ability to self destruct.
Certain things (some known, some unknown) causes mitosis to occur more often. Smoking damages lung cells and causes more mitosis to replace those damaged cells.
The more frequent the mitosis, the more likely that eventually you make a cell that cannot self destruct. Those cells are cancer cells.
Apologies to the biologists if I just made your head explode by oversimplifying it.
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