Re: [pyrnet] Cancer

["Linda Weisser" <lmweisser@attbi.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barb Bowes" <bamb@monmouth.com>


<...the statement is still only perhaps true in the broadest generalization.
Which to me, seems that it has no real bearing on the subject of cancers and
their cause. >>

Actually if the concept of a genetic implication in many cancers bears out
then this has a huge amount to do with any discussion of cancer and its
cause.  It means at its root that in some living organisms cancer  can be
more easily triggered due to faulty genetics.  This conversation started
because we were talking about cancer and the environment and what people
feed their dogs.  Joe's input was that genetics may well play a huge part.
Perhaps a more important part than the others.  In short if your dog (or
you) lacks the genetic trigger potential, where you live or what you feed
may not have much influence.

<<Cancers are, (or at least are believed to be) mutated cells in the body.>>

That is not entirely my understanding.  Cancers are cells runamuck.
Whatever it is in the body that sends the "stop multiplying" message to
cells is not functioning.  Is this a mutation? Who knows?

<< Environmental causes for such mutations have been proven. >>

Putting aside the issue of mutation, many cancers occur that cannot be
linked to environmental causes. Or the person (animal) that gets cancer has
been exposed to precisely the same environmental dangers as those who don't
get cancer.  Clearly something else is at work here.  Therefore the study of
genetics.  There is nearly no serious cancer researcher who does not at
least contemplate a genetic issue.

Linda