SMOKING IS NOT THE ONLY CAUSE OF CANCER

"SMOKING IS NOT THE ONLY CAUSE OF CANCER" argued a gentleman as I asked him not to smoke in a restaurant. Yes, he was right! After carrying out one year of research in cancer, I feel I am eligible enough to share my views on this statement. People always have this query in their mind "Why some people are more susceptible to cancer while others aren't. Many of us might have heard about numerous carcinogenic agents that could cause cancer. One such familiar carcinogenic agent is nicotine in tobacco. Say out of 10,000 people who get exposed to this carcinogenic substance only a few(1%) of those will probably develop cancer. So why is that so?? One reason is that the cancer is not just one disease but rather it is hundreds of diseases. It depends on multiple factors like genetic makeup, immune defense and external factors. Many of us might have developed a tumor in our lifetime, our immune system might have fought against it and erased it w/o our knowledge. So when the immune system becomes weak and also when the environment is quite favorable for the development of cancer, that is when cancer evolves. Hence it's not the single carcinogen which could cause cancer but a combination of multiple factors. That's why cancer is more complicated and difficult to treat as there is no single cause for developing cancer. By this explanation, I didn't mean to say that smoking will not cause cancer but it increases your risk of developing cancer. Not only you, as a passive smoker it increases the risk of others around you. Why put yourself and others at the risk of developing this deadly disease that doesn't have a complete cure yet #Live and let others live a peaceful life#