Causes include consumption of carcinogens (e.g., certain mycotoxins), mutagens (e.g., certain radiation), some viruses (e.g., approximately 70% of human cervical cancers and 30% of oropharyngeal cancers are caused by human papilloma virus), etc. During 2010, Stuart Gordon discovered that people infected with hepatitis C were twice as likely to develope kidney cancer, as non-infected people.

During 1930, Otto Warburg discovered that most cancer cells utilize glycolysis to generate energy via oxidation of sugar molecules, instead of utilizing the cell mitochondria as normal cells do, for energy generation. That utilization of glycolysis enables cancer cells to better survive hypoxia (shortage of oxygen due to lack of good blood supply to a growing tumor) and to better avoid apoptosis (i.e., "programmed cell death", initiated by mitochondria in cells whose DNA is damaged).

CARCINOGEN,  ONCOGENES,  TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR GENES,  ras GENE,  TUMOR,  VIRUS,  TELOMERES,  RETINOIDS,  MUTAGEN,  CELL,  TELOMERASE,  NEOPLASTIC GROWTH,  CHEMOTHERAPY,  DIFFERENTIATION,  OROPHARYNGEAL CANCER,  ORAL CANCER,  MYCOTOXINS,  RNASE 1 GENE,  REGULATORY T CELLS,  PHOSPHORYLATION,  ONCOLYTICS,  GLYCOLYSIS,  HYPOXIA,  SUGAR MOLECULES,  MITOCHONDRIA,  APOPTOSIS,  miRNA GENE