Cancers Are Newly Evolved Parasitic Species, Biologist Argues Cancer patients may feel like they have alien creatures or parasites growing inside their bodies, robbing them of health and vigor. According to one cell biologist, that’s exactly right. The formation of cancers is really the evolution of a new parasitic species. Just as parasites do, cancer depends on its host for sustenance, which is why treatments that choke off tumors can be so effective. Thanks to this parasite-host relationship, cancer can grow however it wants, wherever it wants. Cancerous cells do not depend on other cells for survival, and they develop chromosome patterns that are distinct from their human hosts, according to Peter Duesberg, a molecular and cell biology professor at the University of California-Berkeley. As such, they’re novel species. He argues that the prevailing theories of carcinogenesis, or cancer formation, are wrong. Rather than springing from a few genetic mutations that spur cells to grow at an uncontrolled pace, cancerous tumors grow from a disruption of entire chromosomes, he says. Chromosomes contain many genes, so mis-copies, breaks and omissions lead to tens of thousands of genetic changes. The result is a cell with completely new traits: A new phenotype. Cancer as evolution in action, which represents a fundamental re-thinking of the disease, has been proposed before — evolutionary biologist Julian S. Huxley first described autonomously growing tumors as a new species back in 1956, according to a Cal news release. But the prevailing view has long been that cancer is the result of genetic mutations. Read More
Pop-upView Separately

Cancers Are Newly Evolved Parasitic Species, Biologist Argues

Cancer patients may feel like they have alien creatures or parasites growing inside their bodies, robbing them of health and vigor. According to one cell biologist, that’s exactly right. The formation of cancers is really the evolution of a new parasitic species.

Just as parasites do, cancer depends on its host for sustenance, which is why treatments that choke off tumors can be so effective. Thanks to this parasite-host relationship, cancer can grow however it wants, wherever it wants. Cancerous cells do not depend on other cells for survival, and they develop chromosome patterns that are distinct from their human hosts, according to Peter Duesberg, a molecular and cell biology professor at the University of California-Berkeley. As such, they’re novel species.

He argues that the prevailing theories of carcinogenesis, or cancer formation, are wrong. Rather than springing from a few genetic mutations that spur cells to grow at an uncontrolled pace, cancerous tumors grow from a disruption of entire chromosomes, he says. Chromosomes contain many genes, so mis-copies, breaks and omissions lead to tens of thousands of genetic changes. The result is a cell with completely new traits: A new phenotype.

Cancer as evolution in action, which represents a fundamental re-thinking of the disease, has been proposed before — evolutionary biologist Julian S. Huxley first described autonomously growing tumors as a new species back in 1956, according to a Cal news release. But the prevailing view has long been that cancer is the result of genetic mutations.

Read More

(via noochnotnukes)

Source: popsci.com

92 Notes/ Hide

  1. ontoxen reblogged this from s-cientia
  2. panacealin reblogged this from divineirony
  3. joeltheintrepid reblogged this from divineirony
  4. divineirony reblogged this from ikenbot
  5. fromtheweirdtotheinsane reblogged this from ikenbot
  6. girtabaix reblogged this from noochnotnukes
  7. noochnotnukes reblogged this from proletarianinstinct
  8. raymondradioactive reblogged this from ikenbot
  9. jaanekyun reblogged this from vanillaandlavender
  10. vanillaandlavender reblogged this from proletarianinstinct and added:
    whoa of course you can’t tell anything definitive from one scientist and one study, but still, interesting
  11. proletarianinstinct reblogged this from ikenbot
  12. thedemilitarizedfriendzone reblogged this from ikenbot
  13. ikenbot reblogged this from scinerds
  14. silvertine reblogged this from s-cientia
  15. tunagobbler reblogged this from s-cientia
  16. s-cientia reblogged this from ikenbot
  17. canyousayawkward reblogged this from thehelplessmind
  18. prisoner-of-asskaban reblogged this from likeabreadstick
  19. duhnairies reblogged this from queeniman
  20. the-sexpat-life reblogged this from ikenbot
  21. meewoo reblogged this from scinerds
  22. newslang77 reblogged this from ikenbot