I work as a clinical doctor, treating patients with skin cancer and also as a scientist researching how normal cells change as they turn into cancer.

Our research has shown that cells with DNA alterations linked to cancer spread through normal tissues, so that by middle age most of our cells carry at least one cancer linked DNA change. This process works like Darwinian evolution, with environmental selection of specific alterations in cells that improve their competitive fitness.

We hope that by changing the environment we will be able to redirect evolution so pre-cancerous cells in normal tissues are selected out and the risks of cancer reduced.

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