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Does smoking and pollution really cause cancer or do these people build up resistance to cancer?
I've heard of people who smoke 60 cigarettes a day and have done so for 30 years but have never got cancer or at least have been free of it for a long time.
There are also people who work in industry who inhale coal ash dust, and soot which are full of carcinogenic poly aromatic hydrocarbons. Yet they don't get cancer.
I think in higher risk people like smokers and those who work in carcinogenic environments the body develops resistance to cancer.
For example in smokers, chemicals in cigarette smoke damage DNA in lung cells and can cause the cell to become a cancer cell. But all cells can repair DNA and if the cell becomes cancerous it can destroy itself.
In smokers I think this mechanism is much stronger than in normal people because lung cells etc of smokers are often having their DNA damaged and so the cells become stronger at resisting a change to cancer.
Is this possible?
1 Answer
- JLILv 76 years ago
Neither smoking nor pollution helps building resistance to cancer. It is well documented that smoking is an important cause of cancer. In fact it has been established that smoking is the most frequent cause of livestyle induced cancer.
But a cell doesn't turn into a cancer cell just like that. And it is true that the cells have a proof reading system that will help correct damaged DNA or trigger destruction of afflicted cells. But these systems are far from perfect and foolproof.
A cell evolves into a cancer cell by accumulating several DNA-alterations at certain positions. Smoking increases the risk of these mutations appearing. But it is by no way certain that they will. And smoking certainly does not prevent them.
