“*A carcinogen is a substance, organism or agent capable of causing cancer*”.
“*Cancer* is *a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body*”.
How does something like alcohol or tobacco cause cancer?
In: Biology
Most cancers are caused by DNA that goes wrong, like a hard drive error. Most are obviously just errors that stop things from working, but if you’re unlucky, you can have an error that makes everything work way too well. The vulnerable genes are ones that act like off switches for cell replication, which are only on when the cells are first produced. If you knock them out so the switch is always on, you suddenly have a cell that won’t stop replicating. That might not be enough, but if you knock out other off switches for things like telling the body to feed it more, and you’re pretty much looking at cancer.
DNA damage can be caused a few ways. Radiation and chemicals can actually damage it or convert one base into another. Some chemicals don’t damage DNA, but stick to it to alter its shape so that the repair mechanisms repair it incorrectly.
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