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Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

What is a ‘cancer gene’? How genetic mutations lead to cancer

National Cancer Institute/Unsplash

An estimated 170,000 Australians were diagnosed with cancer in 2025.

Many people know the causes of cancer are partly genetic. But how do your genes, which contribute so much of what makes you you, change what they do and cause a cancer?

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