How cancer starts??
Cell changes and cancer
All cancers begin in cells. Our bodies are made up of more than a hundred million million (100,000,000,000,000) cells. Cancer starts with changes in one cell or a small group of cells.
Usually, we have just the right number of each type of cell. This is because cells produce signals to control how much and how often the cells divide. If any of these signals are faulty or missing, cells may start to grow and multiply too much and form a lump called a tumour. A primary tumour is where the cancer starts.
Some types of cancer, called leukaemia, start from blood cells. They don’t form solid tumours. Instead, the cancer cells build up in the blood and sometimes the bone marrow.
For a cancer to start, certain changes take place within the genes of a cell or a group of cells.
Genes and cell division
Different types of cells in the body do different jobs, but they are basically similar. They all have a control centre called a nucleus. Inside the nucleus are chromosomes made up of thousands of genes. Genes contain long strings of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which are coded messages that tell the cell how to behave.
Each gene is an instruction that tells the cell to make something. This could be a protein or a different type of molecule called RNA. Together, proteins and RNA control the cell. They decide what sort of cell it will be, what it does, when it will divide, and when it will die.

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