system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: can sperm/eggs be cancerous?

was randomly thinking about how I was warned so heavily in school about cancer in the testicles. I was wondering, since my understanding of sperm is basically their a cell with half your DNA in it, could a sperm cell have cancer, and do we know what would theoretically happen to a fetus (or baby assuming it lives somehow) if that sperm was the one to get inside the egg. I think it would probably be the same result but just in case it's not, could the same happen to an egg?

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sorry if this isn't appropriate for ELI5 but it seemed like the right place to ask.
gpt
No. Cancer is by definition abnormal cell growth. Since sperm and eggs can't divide on their own, they can't be cancerous. It's possible to have germ cell cancers (germ cells are the cells that produce sperm and eggs) but it's impossible for a gamete to be cancerous itself. A zygote, however (the fertilized combination of an egg an sperm cell) can grow abnormally, and be cancer-like, although this will never produce a viable pregnancy.