DNA mutation rates raise curtain on cause of cancer

What if we could understand why cancer develops? We know that certain risk factors, such as smoking or excessive sun exposure, can increase the chances of developing this terrible disease, but cancer can form in any tissue, and the cause is not always clear. One idea that has emerged is that for a cell to transform into a cancer cell it must suffer a large number of mutations affecting different genes needed to control cell growth. In a study published this week in Science, Brandeis University researchers have found that the process of repairing DNA damage also unexpectedly increases the rate of mutations and changes the kinds of mutations that arise.

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