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Cancer is really a DNA disease... We have these certain genes that prevent our cells from growing out of control at the expense of the body. And it's a pretty good, robust system. But if a couple of these genes fail, then that's when cancer starts, and cells start growing out of control.

In a way, cancer is so simple and so natural. The older you get, this is just one of the things that happens as the clock ticks.

Tobacco, UV rays, viruses, heredity, and age are the main causes of cancer.

Cancer affects all of us, whether you're a daughter, mother, sister, friend, coworker, doctor, patient.

People grow; people grow apart, and cancer... I've had a very in-depth and personal experience with cancer, and it really causes a perspective shift.

Every single cancer is a genetic disease. Not necessarily inherited from your parents, but it's genetic changes which cause cancer. So as we sequence the genomes of tumours and compare those to the sequence of patients, we're getting down to the fundamental basis of each individual person's cancer.

Cancer is caused by what you do for many, many years, not what you do for a few weeks or months.

Cancer is something that touches everyone's lives.

We know cancer is caused ultimately via a link between the environment and genes. There are genes inside cells that tell cells to grow and the same genes tell cells to stop growing. When you deregulate these genes, you unleash cancer. Now, what disrupts these genes? Mutations.

Unlike other diseases, the vulnerability to cancer lies in ourselves. We always thought of disease as exogenous, but research into cancer has turned that idea on its head - as long as we live, grow, age, there will be cancer.