• Question: How many cancer cells do we have in our body

    Asked by ethan61914 to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 24 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 24 Mar 2010:

      Well Ethan – that is a tricky question.

      It is possible that the answer is zero for most people. Cells BECOME cancerous when their DNA gets damaged – so they don’t start off that way.

      We don’t really know (although a lot of clever people are working on this) whether cells that have become damaged hang round for years without causing any trouble. In some cases this is believed to be true but it is not clear if this is common or not.

      So the answer is probably none.

    • Photo: Chris Cooper

      Chris Cooper answered on 24 Mar 2010:

      A great question that is almost impossible to answer. Clearly there is always the chance of some very slow cancers being in everyone’s body. But in most cases people would assume the number of cells is essentially zero (or more scientifically below the detection limit). In males there is a view that we will all get prostrate cancer if we live long enough (something to look forward to eh?). We just die before it gets noticed.

      But when you are young I would vote for essentially zero if you are healthy

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