What are oncogenes?

A oncogene is like a broken remote control that keeps turning on the TV even when you don’t want it to.

Imagine your body is full of little machines called cells, and these cells usually follow instructions from special messages, kind of like how you follow directions from a teacher. These messages are sent by something called genes, which act like tiny instruction manuals inside each cell. Most of the time, everything works smoothly.

But sometimes, a gene gets changed or broken, maybe it’s like your remote control got stuck on "play" and won’t stop. This kind of broken gene is called an oncogene. It tells the cell to keep growing and dividing too much, which can lead to tumors, just like how a TV that won't turn off might keep playing shows all night.

Think of your body as a big toy box with different toys, each toy is a kind of cell. Most of the time, you take one toy out at a time and play with it. But if an oncogene is working like a stuck button on a toy, it might make that toy keep multiplying, like having 100 teddy bears instead of just one!

Sometimes, other parts of the body try to fix this problem, but if the oncogene keeps acting up, it can cause more trouble. That’s how some kinds of cancer start!