/oss/taxonomy/term/7519/all en /oss/article/medical-general-science/why-do-kids-get-cancer <p>I attended a seminar many years ago given by a Ph.D. student who had spent years working on a particular type of childhood cancer. During the question-and-answer period, I raised my hand. I wanted to know why it was that children even got cancer when most cancers require decades of mutation accumulation.</p> <p>The student didn’t seem to understand my question, which I reformulated a couple of times before one of the professors in the audience turned to me and said, “It’s stochastic,” meaning it’s random, it can’t be predicted, and it’s just bad luck.</p> Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9928 at /oss