Your cancer risk might be decided before you are even born. Here’s why

We often think of cancer as a disease of bad luck, an unfortunate lottery of genetic mutations and environmental exposures. But what if your risk was already shaped before you even took your first breath? A groundbreaking study from the Van Andel Institute suggests that subtle differences in early development could play a surprising role in cancer susceptibility later in life.

Imagine baking two loaves of bread using the exact same ingredients and following the same recipe to the letter yet, due to tiny differences in mixing or temperature, the two loaves don’t turn out exactly identical. Scientists have now found that a similar phenomenon may occur in human development—two genetically identical individuals could experience vastly different cancer risks based on tiny biological differences established in the womb.