Series: Science Surgery

Cancer treatments can work in lots of different ways, aiming to kill tumour cells or keep them under control. Ideally they cause tumours to shrink, but they can also be considered successful if they stop tumours growing. But unfortunately, the effects don’t always last forever.

Cancer can affect any age group but we see many more cases in older people.

For almost all skin cancers, the environmental carcinogen is sunlight, according to Professor Richard Marais. Here’s how scientists uncovered the link.

It’s hard to talking about cancers ‘knowing’ something, but they can have predictable patterns of spread. And scientists are beginning to understand why.

In this Science Surgery post Millie asks: ‘Why doesn’t the immune system attack cancer cells?’ The short answer is it does! But sometimes it needs a helping hand from exciting new treatments.

We don’t always know why never-smokers develop lung cancer, but the data suggests that genetics play a role, as well as environmental or occupational exposures.

The time it takes for cancer to develop will vary from tumour to tumour. But on the whole, it’s slower than you might expect.

Eradicating diseases isn’t easy. Here we look at which cancers are preventable, and how detecting cancers earlier could make a difference.

A genome, a gene and a chromosome are all structures of DNA. The difference between them is the amount of DNA they contain.

In this instalment of our Science Surgery series, we explore what gives a cell the potential to become cancerous, and how the body stops this from happening.