Skin Cancer

Frequently Asked Questions

2. Why are older people more likely to get cancer?

The body has ways of repairing genes and controls some genetic mutations, but not all. One of the reasons that the risk of cancer increases as we age is because sometimes cancer is caused by many mutations accumulating over time. The body's immune system is responsible for recognizing and killing abnormal cells before they become cancerous. As we get older, our immune systems are less able to fight infection and control cell growth.