[ RadSafe ] Causes of Cancer(s) was: Causes of Leukemia

[Clayton J Bradt]

The following web page lists several viruses that are believed to cause 
some cancers of various types:

<
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/InfectiousAgents/InfectiousAgentsandCancer/infectious-agents-and-cancer-viruses
>

I am not a cancer researcher or even a biologist, just a health physicist 
(an oxymoron to some, apparently).  Perhaps someone out there could 
enlighten me about the following:

In order to do the things that any cell has to do to viable and to 
proliferate, very specific genetic information must remain intact within 
cancer cells.  Simultaneously, certain specific genes must be turned on or 
off in order for these cells to evade the multilevel control mechanisms 
which have evolved specifically to prevent damaged cells from surviving. I 
find it difficult to believe that  merely random rearrangements of base 
pairs due to radiation damage and mis-repair could result in these very 
specific changes in a cancer cell's genetic make up.  A billion monkeys 
with typewriters will not come up with "King Lear" over the life-time of 
the universe.  But perhaps a few thousand monkeys with word processors 
upon which the individual pages of "King Lear" are stored in random order 
might be able to reproduce the work over the course of a single human life 
time. 

Prerecorded gene sequences written and rewritten over a billion years of 
viral evolution could be spliced into the DNA of somatic cells which would 
then turn off the control mechanisms and allow the cells to proliferate. 
Since apparently, a number of viruses are believed to cause some cancers, 
why should we not concluded that all cancers are the result of some 
infectious agent? 

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
NYS Dept. of Health
Biggs Laboratory, Room D486A
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12201-0509

518-474-1993

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