Abstract
The short answer is that a cancer is the result of a single cell that has escaped normal controls and continues to proliferate. There are longer and longer answers. The middle answer is that a cancer is started when several events come together: an unexpected change (mutation or functional change) in a growth gene within a particular cell that is still unspecialized and can readily change course. This change can be delivered by a random error in cellular replication, by an environmental exposure, or uncommonly, by an inherited error. Whatever the initiation, it must be in a DNA unit that regulates growth. The damage is always likely to be repaired by normal functions, and even if not, the odds are that such a damaged cell will just die. If additional gene changes, environmental exposures, and simple bad luck conspire to not only keep the damaged cell alive but also enable it to thrive and grow faster than its sister cells, a cancer may result.
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