Date Published: August 17, 2004
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Author(s): unknown
Abstract: None
Partial Text: The essential difference between cancer cells and normal cells is that cancer cells evolve. Most cancers arise from a single cell through a sequential evolutionary process of mutation and selection. Cancer cells harbor mutations in a number of critical genes that, at various stages during the evolution of the tumor, provide those cells with a selective advantage. Many of the phenotypes, or physical outcomes, conferred by these mutant genes are subverted from a normal cell’s repertoire, including proliferation, invasion, migration, loss of differentiation, and loss of apoptosis (programmed cell death); other phenotypes, such as immortalization, are novel. Tumor evolution is thought to adhere to Darwinian principles, with mutations arising randomly within an individual cell, followed by selection for mutant clones with favorable traits.
Source:
http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020284