thanks for sharing this link. is it possible that other cancer cells are further downstream mutations of B cells?

> could cancer cells stem from some errant mutation of B cells?

That is exactly how lymphomas originate.

Also the replication machinery being easy to trigger is why it's the second most common cancer after skin cancers. (Which shares some of those features in addition to being even more exposed to insults and less controlled.)

Where do you get that figure from? All the figures I have state lung and bowel cancers are the most common, along with prostrate and breast for sex specific cancers (although looking at their rates they would be the higher even though their rates in the other sex are exceedingly low).

That's because melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer are split, as other lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma etc. in data despite affecting same cell lines.

If you sum these two up they end on top respectively in that order. Albeit prostate cancer is really close.

It's an artifact of grouping used. For colorectal for example, adenomas and carcinomas are lumped for a change.

Prostate is the second most common worldwide, or skin cancer, depending on year. The big 5 are over 1.5 million. (WCRF data. They lump all lung cancers but split immune system and skin cancers. For reasons? Bladder and lung cancer incidence is highly dependent on factors such as smoking and specific chemicals used in manufacturing. Potentially the same with colorectal and diet. Rates for breast and prostate are high because they're easy to spot and well tested. So per country data varies a lot.)

Non-melanoma skin cancer is usually excluded from registries due to differences across the world in data recording practices: https://www.ncri.ie/faqs/interpret-use-our-data/why-are-data...

is it possible that other cancer cells are further downstream mutations of B cells? thanks for sharing. sorry if these are dumb questions.

It is unlikely, given that B cells are already differentiated. This means that they are unable to change into another cell type.

thanks for the clarification.

phrased another way: could the same process that spawns these legions of B cells also inadvertently spawn cancer cells?

related: healthy cells exhibit properties that allow them to go ignored by the immune system, similar to a VIP pass for bypassing security at a basketball game. is this right? if yes, what are the minimal properties that constitute this cellular VIP pass?

thanks for your help.

B cells carry the same DNA as all other cells. The difference between cell types is in what sections are functionally expressed (made into proteins that do their work). This is determined by a multitude of factors.

Cancer cells typically have mutations, even just single base pair changes, which change the way that genes are expressed in the cell and thereby influence such behavior.

The original functions of the B cell aren't necessarily needed for other cell types to exhibit similar functions. The base plan is there, it just needs a nudge.

Yes! Exactly.