Hi, thanks for the question. I think ultimately you can think of it the other way around. Something goes wrong with the DNA (it changes its code i.e. mutates) and then it ends up making the cells abnormally. The abnormal cell growth then inteferes with the normal functioning of the tissue the cells are in.
I’m actually going to disagree with Matt here and say that absolutely cancer can be caused by cells making mistakes with the DNA. There are lots of ways that DNA can get mistakes in it, but one of the main ways is due to mistakes that are made when the cell copies its DNA before it divides. The machinery that does this in the cell (called polymerase) can make mistakes. The good news is that we have lots of systems in the cell to repair mistakes in DNA. The one that repairs polymerase mistakes is called the “mismatch repair pathway”. This pathway undoes most of the mistakes that polymerase makes. We know that this pathway is really important in preventing cancer because there are some people whose mismatch repair pathway doesn’t work properly (they have a genetic disorder with the genes for this pathway not working due to mistakes in the DNA for those genes!). Those people get many more mistakes in their DNA and have a much higher risk of getting cancer. So yes, cancer can be caused by cells making mistakes in the genetic code of DNA. https://www.stjude.org/disease/constitutional-mismatch-repair-deficiency.html
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Gemma commented on :
I’m actually going to disagree with Matt here and say that absolutely cancer can be caused by cells making mistakes with the DNA. There are lots of ways that DNA can get mistakes in it, but one of the main ways is due to mistakes that are made when the cell copies its DNA before it divides. The machinery that does this in the cell (called polymerase) can make mistakes. The good news is that we have lots of systems in the cell to repair mistakes in DNA. The one that repairs polymerase mistakes is called the “mismatch repair pathway”. This pathway undoes most of the mistakes that polymerase makes. We know that this pathway is really important in preventing cancer because there are some people whose mismatch repair pathway doesn’t work properly (they have a genetic disorder with the genes for this pathway not working due to mistakes in the DNA for those genes!). Those people get many more mistakes in their DNA and have a much higher risk of getting cancer. So yes, cancer can be caused by cells making mistakes in the genetic code of DNA.
https://www.stjude.org/disease/constitutional-mismatch-repair-deficiency.html