New theory of how cancer works could lead to the next generation of treatments for disease -
A new theory of how cancer works could lead to next generation of treatments for the disease.
The theory suggests that cancers when recently evolved genes are damaged and the cells must return to the older usage, inappropriate genetic pathways.
Dr Charley Lineweaver astrobiologists from the Australian National University and Professor Paul Davies of Arizona State University teamed with oncologist Dr. Mark Vincent of the University of Western Ontario to develop the new model.
"the rapid proliferation of cancer cells is a former ability, default has become regulated in the evolution of multicellularity there are about a billion years," says Dr Lineweaver.
"Our model suggests that cancer progression is the accumulation of damage to recently acquired genes. Without control of these recent genes, cellular physiology returns to previous programs, such as unregulated cell proliferation . "
in 2012, about 14.1 million new cancer cases are occurring in the world, but the underlying cause of many forms of the disease has not yet been identified. to understand better disease team turns to the wealth of knowledge being revealed in the genome sequences of a wide range of our distant relatives, including fish, corals and sponges.
This new the knowledge has enabled scientists to establish the order in which the genes have evolved and is the basis for new therapeutic implications of the model, said Dr Lineweaver.
"the adaptive immune system that humans has evolved relatively recently, and it seems the cancer cells are not able to speak and be protected by it. New therapeutic strategies we propose target these weaknesses, "he said
." These strategies are very different from existing therapies, the force that attack cancer -. Its ability to rapidly proliferate "
Professor Davies says the new model will not provide treatment at night.
" it is a work in progress, but we think it gives a more consistent interpretation of what is currently known about cancer than other models do, "he said.
Dr Lineweaver said his research in astrobiology led him to look at cancer.
"Paul and I have always been interested in trying to answer big questions. This led us to astrobiology and try to answer the question 'Are we alone? To answer that you need to know about how life began and evolved on this planet, and that is to understand the evolution of multicellularity. It's obviously a piece missing from our current models of cancer. "
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