Why Is There No Heart Cancer?
Approximately 39.5% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes. Nevertheless, you will rarely hear about heart cancer. There are two surprising reasons why.
Lung, Skin and Colon cancer - but the heart is (almost) always spared:
- The heart lives a relatively sheltered life within the chest. There is no damage from smoke (e.g. lung cancer), food toxins (e.g. colon cancer) and UV light (e.g. skin cancer). No damage to the cells means less risk of cancer.
- Rapidly dividing cells have a higher chance of mutation (e.g. skin cells turnover rapidly, increasing the risk for skin cancer). Consider: Heart cells can't regenerate. Once a heart cell dies it stays dead. That is a double-edged sword, decreasing cancer risk but allowing heart attacks to irreversibly destroy our heart muscle cells.
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