# Cancer of the heart, teeth, hair, or nails?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 11, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053 "2003-09-11T21:54:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Themis00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@Themis00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Themis00)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053/1 "2003-09-11T21:54:05Z")

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I’ve heard of cancer occurring everywhere in the body except for the heart, teeth, hair, and nails.

Can cancer occur in these places?

If it does, why is it so rare?

If not, why doesn’t it? What makes those body parts immune to cancer?

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**Author:** ![Tallayan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Tallayan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tallayan)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053/2 "2003-09-11T22:16:19Z")

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Your hair and nails are dead skin, so now possibility. I can’t remember hearing of tooth cancer but your gums can get it. And heart cancer is around.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053/3 "2003-09-11T23:06:33Z")

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**Cecil Adams** on [Is there such a thing as cancer of the heart?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a941125.html)

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**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancer-of-the-heart-teeth-hair-or-nails/201053/4 "2003-09-12T00:26:36Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Themis00 \*  
> \*\*I’ve heard of cancer occurring everywhere in the body except for the heart, teeth, hair, and nails.
> 
> Can cancer occur in these places?
> 
> If it does, why is it so rare?
> 
> If not, why doesn’t it? What makes those body parts immune to cancer? \*\*

Hair and nails are dead tissue, so can’t themselves become cancerous. However, the nailbed where the nail grows and the hair follicles the hair sprouts from CAN produce cancerous tumors.

The heart can also develop cancer (rhabdomyosarcoma), but it’s rare. More commonly, the heart muscle is infiltrated by cancers that are sperading form another area of the body.

Most of a tooth is also non-living tissue. However, structures in the root of the tooth can become cancerous, and there is a type of cancer (ameloblastoma) where the cancer cells form a structure that resemble the embryonic bud which (in a normal fetus) eventually gives rise to a mature tooth.

So to answer your question, none of those body parts are truly immune to cancer (athough cancer in them is rare).