The Genetic Component of Cancer

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At least 60% of all cancers happen because of DNA copying errors as the cell is dividing. Each time a cell divides, it has to copy its entire DNA - about three billion base pairs. At each division, a cell will retain three to four new mutations. Most of these mutations are passive, which means they're not harmless. But some occur in vital genes such as those responsible for tumor suppressor genes. If these mutations happen in one of those vital genes, then the function of the cell is affected. The outcome for a patient with advanced disease is no different than it was in 1930s.

In the United States, more than one in five deaths is caused by cancer. The medical community has put enormous resources into fighting this disease, yet its causes and best treatments continue to be a puzzle. Azra Raza has been on both sides of the patient’s bed, as she puts it — both as an oncologist and expert in the treatment of Myelodisplastic Syndrome (MDS), and as a wife who lost her husband to cancer. In her new book, The First Cell, she argues that we have placed too much emphasis on treating cancer once it has already developed, and not nearly enough on catching it as soon as possible. We talk about what cancer is and why it’s such a difficult disease to understand, as well as discussing how patients and their loved ones should face up to the challenges of dealing with cancer.

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Azra Raza received her M.D. from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine and Director of the MDS Center at Columbia University in New York. Previously she was the Chief of Hematology-Oncology and the Gladys Smith Martin Professor of Oncology at the University of Massachusetts. Her Tissue Repository contains over 60,000 samples of samples from MDS and acute leukemia patients. She is the co-editor of the celebrated blog site 3 Quarks Daily.

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