Is cancer a disease of self-seeding?

L Norton, J Massagué - Nature medicine, 2006 - nature.com
L Norton, J Massagué
Nature medicine, 2006nature.com
The high cell density, rapid growth rate and large population size of cancer are
conventionally attributed to a pathologically high ratio of cell production to cell death. Yet
these features might also or instead result from inappropriate cell movement, already
understood to underlie invasion and metastasis. This integrating concept could induce a
broadening of our existing anticancer pharmacopoeia, which, with mitosis as its
predominant target, is now seldom curative.
The high cell density, rapid growth rate and large population size of cancer are conventionally attributed to a pathologically high ratio of cell production to cell death. Yet these features might also or instead result from inappropriate cell movement, already understood to underlie invasion and metastasis. This integrating concept could induce a broadening of our existing anticancer pharmacopoeia, which, with mitosis as its predominant target, is now seldom curative.
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