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So today we will be considering the question is cancer hereditary? so the short answer to this is sometimes.
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But we will actually discuss two types of classifications for cancers, distinguishing hereditary cancer from a counter -example, sporadic cancers, just to gain a better understanding of what it means to be a hereditary cancer.
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So first, let's go on ahead and dive into what hereditary cancers are.
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And that term hereditary when it comes to mind, we often think of what we inherit from our parents, correct? so what genes we inherit from both parents being expressed in our own bodies.
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And i would encourage you to look into topics of gene expression, gene composition, what a chromosome is and a little bit of the function of dna, especially if you are trying to learn more about cancer.
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So let's go on ahead and dive into, sorry, let's go on ahead and dive into that a little bit.
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There we are.
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We're back.
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Okay.
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We got lost for a second.
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That's fine.
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All right.
01:35
So for hereditary cancers, these are inherited from our parents, correct? and when we talk about inherited genes, we're specifically talking about our genetic code, our dna, right? so these are inherited genes, which contain mutations.
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So gene mutations, that is really the big takeaway for hereditary cancers.
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So as we may recall from courses in cellular biology, let's go on ahead and take a look at a little chunk of dna here, a couple codons or so.
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So we know that a's, they bond to t's, g's bond to c's, and this goes on in the same fashion in a very specific way.
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And ensuring that these bases or nucleotides, which is what i'm talking about here, are aden, thineine, guine, cytoine, ensuring that these are base paired correctly is very important if they are not.
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Base -barred correctly.
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Let's say, for example, our a bonds to a g somehow.
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Or perhaps this c gets deleted for one reason or another.
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This can lead to mutations in gene product.
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So mutations in gene products can either lead to the gene not producing any protein that it's supposed to be producing or perhaps producing one which doesn't have the right shape.
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And this can actually, in the case of hereditary cancers here, which is what we're discussing, in some cases, this can cause oncogenesis.
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So this is the formation of cancer cells.
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So if there is a specific, type of mutation in a specific gene that perhaps controls a function that helps to maintain cell size or functionality.
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Those mutations, they can be inherited from a parent.
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And if they are expressed, it can actually lead to the formation of cancer cells.
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So this is how hereditary cancers are proliferated.
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Often, it requires both parents to pass on those mutations to the offspring.
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In in some cases, it's only one parent having that gene, being a carrier for that gene being passed off to the offspring.
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And that would lead to a cancerous state of the cells or a heightened probability of a cancerous state in those cells.
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So let's go ahead and talk about an example of this, just to sort of clear up our understanding.
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A really common example of a hereditary cancer is the association between mutations in broca 1 and broca 2, which is associated with breast cancer, or rather increased risk.
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Increased risk.
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A little shorthand for you there.
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So these genes, they control tumor formation.
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And the way they do that, broca 1 actually helps to provide cell signaling for when to stop, actually growing.
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So cells naturally, you know, they have, we possess genes that tell the cell, okay, you've grown enough and it's time to stop and make room for the rest of the cells in this particular tissue area...