J. Justin McCormick, professor of osteopathic medical research and advanced study programs, has been researching cancer for the past 30 years at MSU.

He and his colleague Veronica Maher created a model in the late 1980s that explains how cancer forms and spreads which now acts as the foundation for their research on particular kinds of cancer.

Much of their work is done on the colony of mice — about 300 to 400 subjects — they bred for research.

They use human cells derived from foreskin to simulate the affects of cancer.

Essentially, they inject various human cancers into the mice to track their activity and progression.

Each cancer case starts as a mutated gene in a single cell, McCormick said, passing on its alterations to other cells until cancer emerges, usually in the form of a tumor.

When DNA duplicates, some mutations naturally occur, but he added they can be triggered by carcinogenic agents. The most common cancers, such as skin and lung cancer, are a result of carcinogens from cigarette smoke and UV rays. Another less common source is burnt pieces of food when cooked over a charcoal grill.

“Carcinogens cause mutations in genes — accidental mutations, kind of like a typo,” McCormick said. “There’s always some mutation when DNA duplicates. Carcinogens push it along.”

McCormick said the chances of a person getting cancer from carcinogens depends on the dose and frequency of exposure to them.

Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol frequently increases a person’s chance of cancer much more than eating a piece of burnt chicken every once in a while, he said.

The frequency of different cancers also varies across the globe, McCormick said.

“There’s a high frequency of stomach cancer in Japan,” he said. “We have a very low frequency (in the U.S.). Now, you can study differences in diet — they eat much more salty foods, salted fish. We eat hardly any salted fish — is that an important component?”

But omitting carcinogens doesn’t erase a person’s chances of getting cancer, McCormick said, because the illness is not solely generated by manmade carcinogens.

Certain foods, however, are known to help block mutations, although they do not completely prevent or heal cancer.

The foods packed with the most power include broccoli, tomatoes, green tea and red wine.

“In general, people that are consuming more of a plant-based diet tend to have a lower risk of cancer than a meat-based diet,” said Scott Sehnert, a nutritionist for the Spartan Nutrition & Performance Program.

McCormick stressed that a well-balanced diet and exercise can help, but even health-conscious people can get cancer.

And though carcinogens account for some types of cancer, others are more baffling. McCormick said there are many types of cancer, such as pancreatic, ovarian and colon cancer, for which the cause is still unknown.

“Pancreatic cancer is a fatal disease,” McCormick said. “But we don’t know what the risk factors are for pancreatic cancer. We know smoking has something to do with it, but it doesn’t account for the high frequency. We don’t know what the other causative agents are. We’re sort of stuck at this point.”