Question: do plants help diagnose cancer, if yes how?

Isabel Webb answered on 12 Mar 2014:

As far as I know, plants are not used to diagnose cancer. Cancers are usually diagnosed by doing tests on cells from the suspected cancer tumour (such as an unexpected lump under the skin, or a strange looking mole), or testing blood or urine. These tests look for genes that act in cancer, such as the genes involved in cell growth.

However, some chemicals used to treat cancer are found in plants – used in chemotherapy, which is the treatment of cancer using chemicals. Chemicals found in plants also help to prevent cancer from happening – for example, there is something found in broccoli that might help to prevent cancer. Living a healthy lifestyle is also good for preventing cancer, and eating lots of fruit and veg that are full of good nutrients is part of a healthy lifestyle.

Plants themselves can also get cancers – if you ever see a big blob on the side of tree trunks, this is a tumour. It is caused by a bacteria that injects some DNA into the tree cells and makes the cells grow uncontrollably. Although this is bad for the tree, we can use this bacteria in research to help us to carry out genetic modification, because we make the bacteria inject our new DNA into plant cells.