Can the malfunctioning of hormones or glands be the cause of the creation of damaged cells in our body?

Answer

There are many cells in our body that need to be replaced regularly. When a cell dies, it is replaced by another cell that divides in two. In order to divide, that cell must first double its DNA (=hereditary material) so that both daughter cells receive the same amount. However, errors (mutations) can occur during the production of DNA. When errors occur in regions of the DNA (genes) that regulate cell division, the cell division activity of that cell can derail. Cells then divide too much and a tumor can develop.

In general, it can be said that the more a cell divides, the greater the chance that a tumor cell can develop. The older you get, the more our cells have divided, so the greater the chance of tumor development (fortunately, cancer in children is less common and is a different story).

Hormones are signals that stimulate the cell division of certain cells. So they can increase the chance of tumor development. And once a tumor has formed, its growth can also be stimulated by hormones. So the more of a certain hormone one has produced, the greater the chance of tumor development. The gland or hormone in question does not have to have worked badly for that.

An example is the hormone oestrogen, which is mainly produced in the ovaries in women and which stimulates the cell division of mammary gland cells, among other things. Its production normally fluctuates monthly in the woman, with peaks and troughs. But after a pregnancy, estrogen levels will drop sharply and remain low as long as the mother is breastfeeding. Women who have given birth to several children and have breastfed for a long time will therefore have produced less estrogen than childless women. And the latter are therefore more likely to develop breast cancer. For the same reason (amount of estrogen produced in life), late puberty and early menopause will lower the risk of breast cancer.

So to answer your question briefly: hormones, and therefore also the glands that produce them, can contribute to the production of damaged (tumor-forming) cells in our body. But they don’t have to work badly for that. Hormones therefore do not necessarily lead to tumor formation – fortunately there are many control mechanisms in our cells to prevent this in most people. And many other factors play a role in tumor development.