Does every human have dormant cancer cells?

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Every human experiences minor mutations in their DNA that may accumulate and end up with a cell multiplying uncontrollably. Sometimes certain viruses assist in causing the cells to multiply. These cells then form tumours, and they may be benign or they may be malignant. Those that are malignant are called cancers.

Because of their uncontrolled growth, cancer cells can't be dormant in the sense that they are present but not multiplying.

However, every human, from time to time, may develop cells that would develop into a cancerous tumour. Under normal conditions, the body can destroy most of these cells before they are able to grow into a tumour. The tumour cells are abnormal, and the body's immune system can detect them and consider them as "foreign." The cellular immune system is the most important part of the immune system for this form of defence.

Sometimes the cancer cells are not detected properly by the immune system, or the immune system may not be working properly. In such cases, the cells do then grow into a tumour.

It is not clear how often each human develops such abnormal cells, but it is likely that every human undergoes this process from time to time.

Human papillomavirus, the virus that causes warts, has many different types, and some of these types are able to cause cancers, especially cervix cancer. About 80% of sexually active women are eventually infected - so such cells are common. Cervix cancer cells often escape from the immune system and develop into cancer. The immune system can be stimulated by vaccination, which prevents the development of atypical cells by helping the body develop immunity against the virus.

Other vaccines that cause the immune system to respond directly to cancer cells are in the developmental stage, using proteins from tumour cells or killed tumour cells to provide the body with the foreign proteins to learn to identify and respond to.

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