Absolutely.  You have &#x27;rogue&#x27; cells that go on independent replication programs all the time.  But there are a few checkpoints which are no-go if a cell passes them - they are immediately forced to die.  These include, short telomeres, lack of proper DNA repair, and ability to respond to induced-suicide signals.  In order for an otherwise &#x27;cancerous&#x27; cells to be a problem, it really has to have developed processes that ignore ALL of these (few) checkpoints. The chance that the particular mutation in that cell includes a mutation to overcome ALL of those hurdles simultaneously in a single cell is the chance you develop (a harmful) cancer.  A change to nearly any other gene will cause one of those checkpoints to kick in and force the cell to die.<p>The DNA damage checkpoint is interesting all the way through public health policy in 2 cases:  1) The BRCA gene <i>is</i> a DNA repair protein. Women with a mutated brca gene are missing one of those 3 checkpoints. 2) HPV (for which we have a complete vaccine) is of a type of virus that is generally destroyed by your DNA-repair machinery.  However HPV, being evolutionary wily, has a specific mechanism to shut down your own DNA repair machinery that would otherwise catch the foreign invader.  Hence, HPV &#x27;causes cancer&#x27; by deliberately disabling one of those checkpoints.