indy69camaro said:
Neither CAUSED it, but all of the above will cause it to grow quicker than normal, that's why you are taking those drugs in the first place, yea there is a huge risk associated, if you have a tumor whether cancerous or not, it will grow quicker, just as the muscles will you started taking the gear for in the first place.
I would define IGF-1, androgens/estrogens, and GH as possible cancer promoting but not cancer causing.
In one scenario, cancer that you would have gotten regardless if you were using these substances might be accelerated.
In another scenario, I believe that cancer may be formed that other wise might not have been formed if one might be using these substances.
Cancer cannot be caused unless mutations occur in the DNA strands causes the cells to go haywire. So, no mutations, no cancer. I have seen nowhere where Androgens, GH, IGF-1 have been accused of causing DNA damage.
So these substances are not the direct cause of cancer. But...
your body has the ability to kill and/or fix DNA mutations. Problems arise when DNA is not fixed correctly and/or the mutant cell is not killed.
The prominent tumor suppressor gene is the p53 gene. When this gene is overexpressed, cancer is reduced but parodoxically aging is accelerated. When p53 expression is inhibited, then cancer becomes more likely.
IGF-1 might oppose the action of p53. If this were true, then IGF-1 might cause a mutation that would have been killed to survive and multiply and cancer sets in.
They say that there are approx. 50-60% more cancers among obese people. Obviously, fat is not causing DNA mutations either. So being fat is not a direct cause of the cancer. But something about being very overweight is influencing the rate of cancer. They suspect it may be hormones - testosterone/estrogen, insulin, or igf-1. Whatever it is , if obesity was reduced, we probably will get less cancer cases.
The point I am making (if it is not obvious at this point) is that direct cause and cancer promoting really is just semantics when you really come down to it. But I will give one more example, to try to clarify .
The common cold is caused by a virus. If you do not have the virus, you cannot get common cold. But just being exposed to the common cold virus does not mean that you will catch the cold. The amount of the virus that enters your system as well as your immune system health are major factors in the end.
If I take a substance that lowers my immune system and I get sick. I cannot say that I would have still gotten sick but having a suppressed immune system caused me to get it faster. My compromised immune system might allow me to get sick and not be able to fight off an attack that a health immune system would have beaten.
If IGF-1, testosterone, GH are found to promote cancer, then I think they we must also say that their use might initiate cancers that would not have occured without their use. We cannot just say they made a cancer more aggressive.