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 | | What Causes Cancer?
The prevailing model for cancer development is that mutations in genes for tumor suppressors and oncogenes lead to cancer. However, some scientists challenge this view as too simple, arguing that it fails to explain the genetic diversity among cells within a single tumor and does not adequately explain many chromosomal aberrations typical of cancer cells. An alternate model suggests that there are "master genes" controlling cell division. A mutation in a master gene leads to abnormal replication of chromosomes, causing whole sections of chromosomes to be missing or duplicated. This leads to a change in gene dosage, so cells produce too little or too much of a specific protein. If the chromosomal aberrations affect the amount of one or more proteins controlling the cell cycle, such as growth factors or tumor suppressors, the result may be cancer. There is also strong evidence that the excessive addition of methyl groups to genes involved in the cell cycle, DNA repair, and apoptosis is characteristic of some cancers. There may be multiple mechanisms leading to the development of cancer. This further complicates the difficult task of determining what causes cancer.
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