Young people can develop cancer due to genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors include inherited mutations in genes like BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53 that increase cancer risk. Environmental factors involve exposure to radiation, chemicals, viruses, or lifestyle risks like smoking that cause DNA damage. Cancers in young people may also arise when stem or progenitor cells have a reduced ability to repair DNA damage during cell division or when DNA-damaging agents are present. Common early-onset cancers include leukemias, lymphomas, brain tumors, and bone cancers.

1. CHILD
CANCER
CAUSES:
CAUSES OF ONCOGENIC MUTATIONS
WHY DOES IT OCCUR IN YOUNG PEOPLE?
MECHANISMS OF HEREDITARY
RISK FACTOR'S:

2. Mechanisms of hereditary
predisposition to cancer
Young people can get cancer
for a variety of reasons:
Causes: Risk factor's:
2. Inherited
genetic
mutations
1. Environmental
factors:
Exposure to
radiation or
chemicals
Association
with lifestyles:
Unknown cause
Example:
-Acute
lymphoblastic
leukaemia,
-Testicular
cancer
Uncontrolled growth –
tumour development
Example:
They change in
the BCRA1 and 2
genes
Breast and
ovarian
cancer
RET gene
mutations
Medullary
thyroid
cancer
Risk
Risk
-Exposure X-ray
exposure/nuclear
power plants
-Exposure to
pesticides or
industrial
pollutants
Smoking Excessive
alcohol
consumption
Lung, throat
and bladder
cancer
Liver, colon
and breast
cancer
Risk Risk
Mitotic cell
division
Developmental
signaling
DNA damage
repair
BRCA1,
ATM,
ATR,
etc
TP53,
RB1
BUB1B
etc
WT1, PTCH1, NF1, etc

3. Oncogenic
pathogens
Developmental
mutators
Environmental
mutagens
Causes of oncogenic mutations
in early-onset cancers
VPH
(human papilloma viruses)
VEB
(Epstein-Barr virus)
HTLV
(human T-cell lymphotropic
virus)
Fusobacterium
-Presence of a stem or progenitor cell population that has impaired DNA damage
repair capacity during proliferative DNA replication and/or
- Activation of endogenous DNA nucleases that induce mutations.
Exposure to sunlight, Air-
borne radon or tobacco
smoke exposures, air-borne
asbestos exposure, food-
borne exposures, aflatoxins,
etoposide
Lymphoblastic leukemias,
Hodgkin lymphomas,
astrocytomas,
ependymomas,
medulloblastomas,
osteosarcomas,
Ewing sarcomas,
Wilms tumors,
rhabdomyosarcomas,
germ cell tumors,
neuroblastomas,
retinoblastomas
Wilms tumours
Cancers tend to occur preferentially in infants,
children, adolescents, or young adults:
Kentsis A. (2020). Why do young people get cancer?. Pediatric blood &
cancer, 67(7), e28335. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.28335
References