-
Asked by cupcake94 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 10 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by icecream19.
Question: hey i just thought of a good question Can injuries cause cancer?
- Keywords:
-
Matthew Lam answered on 10 Mar 2014:
That is a good questions. I have never seen any evidence to suggest that this is true. However, some sort of injuries may cause a process called ‘inflammation’, which is normally activated during healing of wounds. There is evidence that inflammation can contribute to cancer so it could be possible…Don’t know much more than that though I’m afraid!
-
Anastasia Wass answered on 10 Mar 2014:
An injury by itself probably won’t cause cancer but inflammation and the healing process can help cancer cells progress.
If cells are exposed to nasty chemicals or viruses they might become slightly mutated, not enough to be cancerous but there no longer normal. When wounds heal our immune system tells the surrounding epithelial cells to divide lots and cover the injury. Lots of division can cause cells to mutate even more and become cancerous. -
Andrea Hanvey answered on 10 Mar 2014:
not directly, but like the others have said injuries often cause inflammation that could affect the cancer process.
if a part of the body for example a bone has an undetected cancer it may sustain an injury more easily due to it being weak. -
Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 12 Mar 2014:
Years ago lots of people thought that injuries could be a cause of cancer but no scientists have found reliable evidence to back this up. Sometimes when people get diagnosed with cancer they try to think of possible reasons and if they remember getting an injury in the same place it makes them think there is a connection, but like I said no one has ever been able to prove this.
Comments
cupcake94 commented on :
its alright thank you