New theory turns cancer on its head

A new theory of how cancer works could lead to the next generation of treatments of the disease. The theory suggests that cancer forms when recently evolved genes are damaged, and cells have to revert to using older, inappropriate genetic pathways. Astrobiologists Dr Charley Lineweaver from The Australian National University and Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University teamed up with oncologist Dr Mark Vincent from the University of Western Ontario to develop the new model. "The rapid proliferation of cancer cells is an ancient, default capability that became regulated during the evolution of multicellularity about a billion years ago," says Dr Lineweaver. "Our model suggests that cancer progression is the accumulation of damage to the more recently acquired genes. Without the regulation of these recent genes, cell physiology reverts to earlier programs, such as unregulated cell proliferation." In 2012 about 14.1 million new cases of cancer occurred globally, yet an underlying cause of the many forms of the disease has not yet been identified. To understand the disease better the team turned to the wealth of knowledge being revealed in the genome sequences from a large range of our distant relatives, including fish, corals and sponges.