87 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States are accounted to smoking. 90 percent male smokers and 85 percent female smokers suffer from this disease. The risk of developing this cancer is 17.2 percent in the former. It is 11.6 percent in the latter.
Researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University Cancer Institute found how smoking causes a protein to change genes in the cells of lung, leading to lung cancer.
How Smoking Causes Lung Cancer?
- A protein FANCD2 repairs damage caused to the DNA structure and prevents cancer by compelling the abnormal malignant cells to commit suicide.
- According to the discovery made in the research study, exposure of lung cells to cigarette smoke slows down production of the protein called FANCD
As the level of this protein comes down, damage caused to DNA structure of the genes in the lung cells remains unrepaired, leading to lung cancer.
How Unrepaired DNA Structure Leads to Cancer in an Organ?
Genes are the chemical instructions followed by every cell in the body. They are made up of DNA and RNA molecules. Cancer is always known to be of genetic origin. Certain mechanism causes abnormality in the genes leading to this ailment.
Normally, healthy cells multiply through a process called cell division. This process replaces old damaged cells with new healthy cells in the body. In this process, an existing cell splits into two by passing a copy of its genetic instruction to the new cells. After cell division, the old cell commits programmed suicide technically known as apoptosis.
But, when faulty DNA structure of the genes, gets replicated every time during cell division, the new cells behave abnormally because of their changed set of instructions. As the extent of faults in the DNA structure accumulates per cell division, a chunk of abnormal cells are produced, with properties radically different from the properties of healthy cells.
This chunk of malignant cells of an organ, is the tumor and the condition is known as cancer in that part of the body.
