# The average person gets cancer several times a day. True or false **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018 "2016-02-24T20:52:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/1 "2016-02-24T20:52:51Z")
Someone mentioned this on another forum. I know I once read that the body can have cells turn cancerous, but the immune system clears them out or segregates the cells, and that this is not uncommon. But cells going cancerous daily seems very hard to believe, despite there being 100 trillion cells in the body and billions reproducing daily. And what is the definition of cancer? Is it just any cell that reproduces without direction from the organism as a whole? I’m not talking about ‘I’m going to die from this’ cancer obviously, I mean does a person daily experience having a few cells mutate into cancer, but the body fixes it before it becomes a problem? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/2 "2016-02-24T21:02:06Z")
I asked a similar question several years ago: [“your body produces X cancer cells per day.” Value of X?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=574020) ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/3 "2016-02-24T21:20:39Z")
This is a terrible cite, but I was once at a seminar where someone was working on DNA repair mechanisms. In their introduction, they had a rather shocking back-of-the-envelope calculation, something like: (DNA replication errors / cell division) \* (cell divisions/day) \* (probability of mutation in a cancer related gene) = OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL FULL OF CANCER. Obviously though, evolution has managed to come up with a multitude of large, long-lived animals that necessarily don’t get much cancer until after their reproductive peak. There are many interlocking layers that control cell division, so a single mutation is almost never enough to cause cancer. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/4 "2016-02-24T21:32:43Z")
This article has some sobering numbers: [DNA damage (naturally occurring) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_damage_(naturally_occurring)). The hard part is defining what exactly is “cancer”. There’s a lot of genetic abnormality that is on the road to “cancer” as we laymen understand it. See [Neoplasm - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplasm) for more. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/5 "2016-02-24T23:35:53Z")
The concept of what even counts as a cancer has also become more murky, as we now realize that some nodules that look like cancer under the microscope may have no impact on patients’ lives. This Wikipedia quote mentions thyroid and prostate cancer specifically, but the same is true in breast cancer, and probably all over the body. Unfortunately, we are not good at prospectively telling which cancer is a “bad one” and which is “okay”. > [@](#): > > Some slow-growing cancers are particularly common. Autopsy studies in Europe and Asia have shown that up to 36% of people have undiagnosed and apparently harmless thyroid cancer at the time of their deaths, and that 80% of men develop prostate cancer by age 80.[165][166] As these cancers did not cause the person’s death, identifying them would have represented overdiagnosis rather than useful medical care > **[Cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer#Prognosis)** > > Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bleeding, prolonged cough, unexplained weight loss, and a change in bowel movements. While these symptoms may indicate cancer, they can also have other causes. Over 100 types of cancers affect humans. > Tobacco use is the cause of about 22% of cancer deaths. An... ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/6 "2016-02-25T08:21:32Z")
I suppose that’s vaguely, misleadingly true, just as you could say that _the average person fights off dozens of infections every minute!_ In the sense that many times each minute the human body is exposed to a possibly-infectious germ, but the bodies defense mechanisms overwhelm it and dispose of it. That’s their job, and a normal part of their functioning. But this phrasing makes it sound like it is something extraordinary. Just like that statement about cancer. A rhetorical trick, basically. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/7 "2016-03-17T00:57:13Z")
> **[Spontaneous Cancer Cells Killed by Immune System Every Day](https://guardianlv.com/2014/02/spontaneous-cancer-cells-killed-by-immune-system-every-day/)** > > According to a new study out of Australia’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, spontaneous cancer cells associated with B-cell lymphomas develop in the human body every day and are quickly killed by the body’s first line of defense... > [@](#): > > According to a new study out of Australia’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, spontaneous cancer cells associated with B-cell lymphomas develop in the human body every day and are quickly killed by the body’s first line of defense against disease, the immune system. > > The Melbourne research study, published today in the journal Nature Medicine, revealed that the body’s immune system regularly eliminates potentially cancerous immune B cells in the blood before they develop into dangerous B-cell lymphomas, commonly referred to as non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. > > The research team made the discovery as they were attempting to learn more about how B cells change as lymphoma develops. They found that even though everyone experiences “spontaneous mutations” in immune B cells on a regular basis as a part of the body’s normal function, the relatively low occurrence of blood cancer resulting from these spontaneous cell changes can be attributed to the body’s immune system taking a proactive approach to killing them off. So that is just one form of cancer, and it occurs daily in healthy people. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/8 "2016-03-17T00:58:16Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I asked a similar question several years ago: > > [“your body produces X cancer cells per day.” Value of X?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=574020) [http://www.beinghealthynaturally.com/cancer/whatiscancer.php](http://www.beinghealthynaturally.com/cancer/whatiscancer.php) > [@](#): > > Cancer is looked at as this elusive thing, when in all actuality, it is something that > happens every day in every person. You develop one million cancer cells in your body every day. And, every day, your body kills one million cancer cells. That site seems a bit iffy. I don’t know how valid that number is, but 1 million cells a day developing cancer is higher than I would’ve thought. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-average-person-gets-cancer-several-times-a-day-true-or-false/747018/9 "2016-03-17T05:39:28Z")
I can’t find a cite now, but I once read that the average person gets cancer 6-8 times in his lifetime–but most of the time, the immune system takes care of it.