How cancer starts: how a normal cell turns into cancer
Why cancer risk rises with age: one cell needs several mutations
By the age of 60, a big share of the cells in normal, sun-exposed skin already carry a mutation in a cancer gene, and the skin works just fine. So why does cancer need so many years, and why does it come mostly late in life?
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Here is what broke in Rono's mole. In one of its cells, a new mutation broke one of the brakes that held the mole still. In melanoma, this is often a brake gene called CDKN2A, not p53. That cell started to copy again, and so did all its copies.
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So far, Rono's mole has collected at least two hits in the same family of cells: a jammed accelerator fifty years ago, and a broken brake now. That is still not enough for cancer.
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