The Online Asbestos, Asbestos Cancer, & Mesothelioma Authority
Carcinogenic
In basic terms, any substance that can cause cancer is a carcinogen. It can be a chemical, UV light, or a physical substance such as asbestos that leads to the changes eventually developing into the condition known as cancer.
Cancer is a state of uncontrolled cellular growth anywhere in the body. A group of cells undergo a change at the molecular level, and start dividing. Normally, cell division and cell death are tightly controlled and balanced to meet the needs of the body (1). In the case of cancer, cells ignore the needs of the body and continue to divide indefinitely. Eventually, the cells form a mass, known as a neoplasm or tumor. This group of abnormal cells will grow independently inside the body, providing no useful substances, instead acting as a parasite, competing with the normal cells of the body for energy and nutrition (2).
The molecular changes that cause cancer, and the ways in which carcinogens induce them, is a subject that, remains incompletely understood. However, we can safely say that genetic damage lies at the heart of all carcinogenesis (2). Basically, a carcinogen will physically react with the DNA of a cell and change its structure. This leads to a change in the sequence of the DNA when it is copied or repaired by the body. The alteration in the sequence of a gene is known as a mutation and one of the possible outcomes is transformation of the cell into a cancer cell (1). This cell will then begin to divide indefinitely, and all of the cells it produces will be cancer cells. Thus cellular growth will occur at an extremely fast level, and depending on numerous factors, the host will eventually develop symptoms ranging from a benign lump to a complex disease such as mesothelioma.
- Lodish, Harvey, et al. Molecular Cell Biology - Fourth Edition. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2000.
- Cotran, Ramzi, et al. Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease - Sixth Edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1999.