Cancer support community is a family disease. Like all familial cancers, most of our cancer genes are part of our DNA. However, cancer is not just a disease of the parent, it is the disease of the child that inherits the damaged DNA. In fact, it is often the case that cancer in the family is the child who develops cancer. Children who inherit the faulty genes can be predicted to develop cancer or to have certain changes in the way they make proteins. Such children can be treated to prevent them from developing cancer.
Parents that have a family history of cancers should be aware that changes in the DNA of their children can make them prone to develop cancer.
A diagnosis of cancer in childhood or adolescence can make them especially vulnerable to developing cancer in the future.
What Causes cancer support community in Children?
A diagnosis of cancer is often the result of a combination of factors. Such factors may be inherited or they may have developed on their own.
Inherited
Possible causes of cancer in children are the same as those of cancer in adults. However, one condition that affects children more frequently than adults is cancer of the breast, skin, lungs, ovaries, skin, pancreas, stomach and bone marrow. Cancer of the lymphatic system is the second most common type in children. Cancer of the kidney and the brain is also very common.
A relatively new cause of cancer in children is cancer of the stomach.
A rare but tragic type of cancer is cancer support community of the brain. This cancer is relatively rare, occurring in approximately 150 cases in England. One report estimates that cancer in the brain may occur in up to one percent of cases of brain cancer in children.
Some of the cancers that affect children can also occur in adults, but the cancer usually occurs later. Cancer of the lung usually occurs in adults aged 55 or more, while cancer of the pancreas rarely occurs in adults. The bone cancer osteosarcoma occurs more frequently in adults than in children, but childhood cancer is also a common diagnosis. Cancer of the skull and bone cancer of the brain are common among children, but these cancers can occur in adults.
However, most children who develop cancer in the first 20 years of life are not victims of their parents’ or their parents’ parents’ cancers.
These cancers may develop on their own and often appear in infancy and early childhood. The cause of a large proportion of cancers in children is still unknown, but changes in the genetic code of many genes play an important role in determining whether a child develops cancer.
A mutation of the gene is generally recognised as a cause of cancer. Cancer of the skin, bone, lymph nodes and brain may occur as a result of mutations in genes that regulate the cell cycle. Another genetic change that is recognised as a cause of cancer in children is a mutation of a gene that encodes a protein known as a histone protein. One of the genes in this gene produces an enzyme that helps to regulate the cell cycle. The gene must be replaced by a mutation in order for this process to occur.
Mutations to genes that make proteins are more likely to occur in cancer of the skin. Furthermore, a genetic change to a protein in a different type of cancer (leukemia) can change the way the proteins in that cancer interact with each other.
When a change in a gene causes a mutation, this can result in changes to the protein that the gene produces. The protein then creates changes in the shape of cells, changing the way cells grow and reproduce. This is often the cause of cancer.
Examples of changes to proteins that result in cancer in children are the following:
Arsenic inhibits the function of a type of protein known as histones. Histones are normally present in cells to help to control how cells divide. A mutation in a protein that is involved in histones can result in changes to the shape of cells. Such changes can alter the growth and reproduction of cancer cells. These changes can cause cancerous changes to the cells in organs.
Changes in the protein that makes a type of protein known as RNA can cause changes in the shape and formation of cells. Changes in RNA can result in changes in the growth and reproduction of cancer cells. This can occur in cancers of the kidney and brain.
Cancer occurs when certain changes occur to proteins. The protein that makes a type of enzyme called RNA polymerase is normally present in cells to help to regulate how cells divide. This enzyme must be replaced by a mutation in order for changes to occur. This type of mutation is more likely to occur in cancer of the kidney and brain.