Sometimes Cancer Is Just Bad Luck
Smoking can still kill you, but two-thirds of all cancer-causing mutations rely on chance.
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Don’t smoke. Wear sunscreen. Eat broccoli. Avoid couches?
For decades, the public has been warned of the link between exposure to all sorts of toxins and cancer. But according to a new study published on Thursday in Science, two-thirds of the gene mutations that cause the dreaded affliction in humans aren’t driven by the environment or even hereditary factors. They are the result of random DNA replication errors—or, as one of the researchers put it, “bad luck.”