Environmental Factors Inducing Human Cancers

BACKGROUND: An explosion of research has been done in discovering how human health is affected by environmental factors. I will discuss the impacts of environmental cancer causing factors and how they continue to cause multiple disruptions in cellular networking. Some risk factors may not cause cancer. Other factors initiate consecutive genetic mutations that would eventually alter the normal pathway of cellular proliferations and differentiation. Genetic mutations in four groups of genes; (Oncogenes, Tumor suppressor genes, Apoptosis genes and DNA repairing genes) play a vital role in altering the normal cell division. In recent years, molecular genetics have greatly increased our understanding of the basic mechanisms in cancer development and utilizing these molecular techniques for cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis and therapies. Inhibition of carcinogenic exposures wherever possible should be the goal of cancer prevention programs to reduce exposures from all environmental carcinogens.