How many mutations does it take to develop cancer?

It was further assumed that, in the absence of rampant genetic instability, the critical set of mutations would arise one at a time and that it would, therefore, take time to assemble a 'full house' set. read more

October 26, 2015 October 26, 2015 / Mel Greaves For some time before we had the benefit of cancer genomics, it was generally believed that for a cancer to disseminate and become potentially lethal, it would have had to accrue several mutations that, collectively, would provide a kind of ‘full house’ for malignancy. read more

View a transcript for the video about how cancer starts. It can take many years for a damaged cell to divide and grow and form a tumour big enough to cause symptoms or show up on a scan. How mutations happen. Mutations can happen by chance when a cell is dividing. They can also be caused by the processes of life inside the cell. read more