Cancer Resembles Life 1 Billion Years Ago

[MarionBarberThe4th]

Obviously, I dont have to tell you what this means


http://www.lifescientist.com.au/art...life_1_billion_years_ago_say_astrobiologists/


The new theory, published in the journal Physical Biology, has been put forward by two leading figures in the world of cosmology and astrobiology: Paul Davies, director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University; and Charles Lineweaver, from the Australian National University.
In the paper, they suggest that a close look at cancer shows similarities with early forms of multicellular life.
"'Advanced' metazoan life of the form we now know, i.e. organisms with cell specialization and organ differentiation, was preceded by colonies of eukaryotic cells in which cellular cooperation was fairly rudimentary, consisting of networks of adhering cells exchanging information chemically, and forming self-organized assemblages with only a moderate division of labor," they write


According to Lineweaver, this suggests that cancer is an atavism, or an evolutionary throwback.
“Unlike bacteria and viruses, cancer has not developed the capacity to evolve into new forms. In fact, cancer is better understood as the reversion of cells to the way they behaved a little over one billion years ago, when humans were nothing more than loose-knit colonies of only partially differentiated cells.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Interesting, sort of. There are a good number of shark species that do not get any cancerous cells, nor can you induce cancerous growths within their bodies.

While there is cellular-level cooperation observed in some types of malignant tumor types, specifically "searcher" cells that prep an area for the next malignancy within the body, it doesn't really address benign tumors. Moreover, you can create cancerous cells by excising a complete protein coding sequence on the parent DNA strand. There then exists a completely replicated DNA helix that is passed on to the daughter cells, with a gap that makes the cell inefficient at its specified job within the tissue type.

Take for example a red blood cell. If you play with the coding sequences, you excise the expression of a protein by altering the promoter region of the sequence. As the DNA is replicated that sequence is silent and much like listening to 4 minutes of nothing on a CD between songs. Nothing happens. So when that silent area codes for the iron binding into the red blood cell, that cell becomes useless for oxygen transport. As long as that lineage of cells continues to divide and multiply within the blood stream, you've got a leukemic or myelomic cancer.

Does that look anything like a protozoan or proto-metazoan? Not even remotely.

While the article does provide an interesting idea on how to potentially treat malignancies, I think the researchers in this case found their results, then went hunting for an ideal explanation to match it. In other words, they've got artifactual data that doesn't necessarily mean what it looks like it could mean.

 

[YosemiteSam]

There are a few users here that resemble cancer. Specifically the Apple fanboys.

 

[WV Cowboy]

I think the researchers in this case found their results, then went hunting for an ideal explanation to match it. In other words, they've got artifactual data that doesn't necessarily mean what it looks like it could mean.

I think this happens a lot, .. or they already know the conclusion that they want and then go and find a way to make existing data look like it proves it.

 

[zrinkill]

As someone who watched it eat his baby sister at the ripe "old" age of 29, I hope Cancer does evolve into a sentient being before I die.

Just so I can torture it for years before slowly and painfully killing it.