Researchers from Yale Cancer Center and the Fudan-Yale Center for Biomedical Research at Fudan University in China have provided an insight into how certain cells become cancerous. Their study which has been published online in the journal Nature,emphasizes the fact that mutations that lead to cancer are not confined to single cells rather they are present in different cells of a tissue and work together in tumor development.They found that tissues have greater tendency to accumulate mutations in different cells than in a single cell alone.With an aim to study how mutations occur in single cells to create tumor, Tian Xu, a researcher with the Yale Cancer Center studied genes of Drosophila,the fruit fly.In particular they focused on a gene linked to about a third of cancers in humans. Their study revealed that mutations don’t need to be in the same cell to cause tumors and that environmental stresses, including wounds, can cause cancer to develop. A lot of different conditions can trigger stress signaling: physical stress, emotional stress, infections, inflammation.
This research could definitely help develop better approaches towards cancer treatment as well as refine our understanding of the mechanisms underlying cancer.
