3 ms·
> There is a relatively new theory saying that malignant, metastatic cancer cells behave like single cell organisms, This is the track they are on, but given h
by im3w1l 6y ago
> There is a relatively new theory saying that malignant, metastatic cancer cells behave like single cell organisms,
This is the track they are on, but given how shortlived they are, they never get the chance to do much evolution. They only have time to learn a few tricks. Simple things like turning stuff of or up/downregulating existing systems. It's a strange step to "cannot help but switch to the previous single-celled metabolism, very inefficient compared to ours".
Theory in article seems much more likely.
- jetrink 6y ago> given how shortlived they are, they never get the chance to do much evolution There is a very rare category of cancers for which this is not true, clonally transmissible cancers[1]. They can move from individual to individual like other pathogens. One example is the devil facial tumor disease[2] that has killed around 95% of Tasmanian devils. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonally_transmissible_cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonally_transmissible_cancer 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]