Why does exposure to radiation cause cancer/leukemia? sometimes even decades later

Question

Why does exposure to radiation cause cancer/leukemia? sometimes even decades later

In: 90

Answer 1

The reason why it can happen decades later is simply that it may interfere with your genes, but not necessarily enough to cause cancer immediately. But now that you have the damage, it takes less additional mistakes until you reach the point where the cells reach the stage where they get out of control.