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Is cancer the product of the biological evolution of a living being?

2020-08-27T17:49:31.578Z


This disease is an evolutionary consequence of 'cellular' life associated with the division of cellsApproved the first rescue treatment for the most aggressive lung cancer in 20 years Cancer is generally a disease associated with aging in which genetic and environmental factors play fundamental roles. When we say that it is a disease associated with aging, it must be clear that it is not only that, and for that reason children can also have cancer, although childhood is classified as a rare dise...


  • Approved the first rescue treatment for the most aggressive lung cancer in 20 years

Cancer is generally a disease associated with aging in which genetic and environmental factors play fundamental roles. When we say that it is a disease associated with aging, it must be clear that it is not only that, and for that reason children can also have cancer, although childhood is classified as a rare disease due to its low frequency. In essence, we could say that cancer is an evolutionary consequence of cellular lifeassociated with the division of cells. The more times cells divide, the more errors can appear, and cancer emerges together with some of those errors. As a curiosity, tumors appear in many animal species but there are still some that develop less cancer than others. In fact, to learn about human cancer, animals that are very resistant to this disease are studied, such as the elephant or another very curious one, the naked mole rat.

To understand why cancer is related to biological evolution, we must know what our genome is like. The genome is divided into genes. So that you understand, imagine that our DNA is a library, each gene is a book and that book has recipes. Let's assume that the purpose of these recipes is to make an omelette. The omelette would be the protein. From a gene that is the cookbook we go to protein. When you make that recipe errors may appear. Those errors would be mutations. And the result of that error can be a tortilla that turns out to be fatal and the functionality of the tortilla is no longer the same. Or a mega omelette can come out, if you put too many potatoes or too much egg, you also get an omelette (protein) that doesn't work. What happens is that over the years, and that is why cancer is associated with aging, our cells divide thousands of times every day. For this division the cell has to duplicate the DNA. We have 3.2 x 109 base pairs in each cell that are the nucleotides that make up genes (which would be the letters of the book). In each division, a cell has to duplicate that enormous number of letters. If we go back to the simile of the library, imagine that you have to copy a book by hand, because surely you are going to make mistakes and that is what normally happens in cells. In every division a cell makes, there are mistakes. This appearance of errors, or mutations, is measured: it is estimated that 35 bases per generation are wrong. These mutations accumulate until one arrives that, along with the others, make a difference, since they provide the cell with adaptive capacities that are different from the rest. That is the genetic component. You should also know that those 35 mutations per generation do not always accumulate, since many are corrected because cells have systems to fix those errors.

The capacity of tumor cells as an evolutionary organ is enormous. Cancer cells are super adapted and that is why they are usually so resistant

When these errors accumulate, environmental factors also intervene, for example if you smoke, if you drink, if you expose yourself to radiation ... Then there comes a point where a cell gets out of control. For example, it stops obeying the repair systems we talked about earlier or these systems break down, and mutations accumulate. It stops being a healthy cell that acts like other healthy cells and starts doing things that harm the body. From here we can see a parallel with Darwin's theory of evolution for organisms: the cells that develop new adaptive capacities will be the ones that multiply the most or the ones that best survive. In fact we know that metastasis, which is what really kills cancer patients in general and which is the spread of cancer to other organs, is a very inefficient process. Of the majority of cells that are capable of escaping from the primary tumor, many die and of those that manage to reach vital organs such as the lung or the brain, almost all die. Only those that are capable of adapting to those environments that are so different from those they emerge from can survive and that is why the most malignant are being selected, those that have the most capacity to survive in those environments that, in principle, are hostile for them.

Our human species emerged about 350,000 years ago thanks to the accumulation of mutations that make the species more adapted. But if we think of cancer, a tumor takes a long time to develop, we are going to put a window of about 80 years, the half-life of a person. That time, which for us is a long time, if you compare it with 350,000 years is very little, that is, the capacity that tumor cells have as an evolutionary organ is enormous. Cancer cells are super adapted and that is why they are usually so resistant. And that's the problem with treating cancer.

It must be clear that cancer does not only have a genetic component, it also has an environmental component. We already knew that smoking is a habit that causes cancer or that solar radiation can also do it, but obesity is also being studied a lot now. In summary, cancer is associated with evolution and therefore aging, that is, with the accumulation of mutations due to the multiple divisions of cells.

Verónica Torrano is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the University of the Basque Country and associate researcher at the Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CICBioGUNE) of Vizcaya. The group he leads is specialized in cancer research.

María Muñoz Caffarel is an Ikerbasque and Miguel Servet researcher at the Biodonostia Institute, where she leads the breast cancer group.

Verónica Torrano and María Muñoz Caffarel are the coordinators of the Young group in the Spanish Association for Cancer Research (ASEICA).

Question sent via email by Manuel Fernández González

We respond is a weekly scientific consultation, sponsored by the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation and the L'Oréal-Unesco 'For Women in Science' program , which answers readers' questions about science and technology. They are scientists and technologists, members of AMIT (Association of Women Researchers and Technologists) , who answer these questions. Send your questions to nosotrasrespondemos@gmail.com or via Twitter #nosotrasrespondemos.

Coordination and writing: Victoria Toro

Source: elparis

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