Question

so i am doing a paper for biology and i need someone to help me with a question or point me to where i can look to find the answer because i cant find it the question is how is it that breast-cancer genes are still present in the population, despite cancer-related surgeries and deaths.
i dont want the answer just someone to point me in the right direction

Answer 1

Google :)

Answer 2

i have googled and it hasnt helped at all

Answer 3

This we are happy to help you with - but it would be easier if you gave us some indication of what level this paper should be at or, if you do not wish to disclose or age/grade on the internet (very wise not to), some indication of how long the paper should be...

Answer 4

i just have to answer this and another question and i am done um put it in a highschool level kinda simplyfy it for me i am really confused lol

Answer 5

So you mean why breast cancer genes are still present even though people die or get cured [which genes should be lesser and lesser]?

Answer 6

yes how are they still there if people are getting the surgeries to fix it or they die i dont understand it

Answer 7

they have been handed down in the genes? some people still do survive :)

Answer 8

o okay thank you that makes enough sense they get A mastectomy right?

Answer 9

yeah i think so :)

Answer 10

what u can do research on
1, inheritance [ can increase the risk of getting cancer, but that doesnt mean u will get cancer. so it is all about chance
2, mutation [sometimes it's just mutation that changes the sequence which brings cancer. It is very common, so it's not something u can fix]
3, i believe there is also some environmental factors, but i'm not sure

blues can explain well better than i can :)

Answer 11

thank you for the help yall have given me

Answer 12

In one place, the alleles for breast cancer persist because new mutations occur at random in previously normal genes. As people with the mutation die, more mutations occur. As CmkC correctly points out, some environmental factors make these mutations more likely to occur.

Another slightly subtler reason is that breast cancer mostly does not occur in women of childbearing age - it is a disease which affects older women. It has no affect on their fitness to pass on their genetic material, so it persists in the population.

You should read up on the Brc-Able kinase and translocation mutations.

Answer 13

it can also just form over time

Answer 14

Hmm, could you clarify that mmoul? I'm not sure I understand your response...

Answer 15

some women never have it in their bloodlines and after a while a lump appears. It can then lead to breast cancer or it can develop into nothing at all

Answer 16

That's why we should always do health check every year :DD

and np, come back often! we will always help you

Answer 17

thank you

Answer 18

i hope this helped :)

Answer 19

I think you're talking about the multihit model - where loss of function mutations in cancer suppressing genes and gain of function in cancer promoting genes eventually lead to a cell which starts dividing out of control and causes cancer. I think the question just pertained to why those mutations remain in the population...

Answer 20

yes that is right

Answer 21

are those lumps always cancerous?

Answer 22

nop, not all lumps are cancerous, that's why u need to go to a doctor to check whether the lump is benign or cancerous

Answer 23

o okay
well if needed future advice

Answer 24

I think you've got two questions going on here and I think @blues addressed them, but I wanted to emphasize the part about inheritance of genes vs evolution.

You have a population of potential mothers (people who can pass on their genes) - some of them have babies and pass on their genes. Those people can reproduce with or without breast cancer - so even if a woman had breast cancer, had surgery or chemo or both, she's still capable of passing on her genes. Surgery doesn't change that. (There are lots of other questions here I'm ignoring, like what kind of breast cancer it was, how hormone-responsive it was, if it was a type that we know there's an inheritance pattern, or if we don't know that yet!)

Then there's the evolutionary part - if I'm reading right, you're also wondering why we still have cancer, given that we're all subject to evolution? Those genes are subject to evolutionary forces, but they move slowly, and cancer does not remove them from circulation - and like @blues said, frequently, those genes have already been passed on by the time someone knows they have breast cancer.

There's also lots of complex interactions that we don't completely understand yet between someone's genetic predisposition and their environment, so it's not a straightforward situation where if you have a specific genetic sequence and you're guaranteed to get a cancer at 25.

I'm not sure I added much to what has already been said, but I wanted to add a little bit about why evolution might preserve some of these genes that we view as very negative and that can be deadly!

Hoping that helped!