Cancer: forward and reverse

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: October 14, 2015

The convergent cancer evolution toward a single cellular destination

Abstract excerpt:

…cancer evolution is a directional process toward a defined cellular destination, a finding reconciling development and evolution, the two seemingly incompatible philosophies both adopted by the cancer research community, and also raising new questions to evolutionary biology.

My comment: The idea that cancers evolve and the idea that species evolve are not compatible. Taken  together, the incompatible ideas that have been adopted by cancer researchers led to 32 years of stagnated research that might otherwise have led to cures.
In an earlier version of the manuscript published today, the authors concluded:

…attempts to stop an ongoing degeneration towards the unicellular “ground state” seem unlikely to succeed.

Subsequent research showed precisely the opposite. See: Distinct E-cadherin-based complexes regulate cell behaviour through miRNA processing or Src and p120 catenin activity, which was reported as:

Discovery of new code makes reprogramming of cancer cells possible

Excerpt:

By administering the affected miRNAs in cancer cells to restore their normal levels, we should be able to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function,” Dr. Anastasiadis says.

My comment: This suggests nutrient-dependent microRNAs can stop the progression of virus-proliferation that links viral microRNAs to cancer pathology.
The suggestion comes from experimental evidence of how biophysically constrained nutrient-dependent RNA-mediated cell type differentiation occurs in the absence of viral proliferation, which young earth creationists have linked to all pathology.
For comparison, evolutionary theorists would probably tell you that the progression of cancer is inevitable via ongoing processes that link accumulated mutations to pathology except when beneficial mutations are linked to the evolution of a new species.
But, I can’t really attest to what theorists might say, and don’t really care what they claim. They are biologically uninformed.  If they were informed, they would not claim

…attempts to stop an ongoing degeneration towards the unicellular “ground state” seem unlikely to succeed.

See also: The dJ/dS Ratio Test Reveals Hundreds of Novel Putative Cancer Drivers
Abstract excerpt(s)

1) …observation of dJ/dS ratio larger than 1 in cancer indicates positive selection for splicing deregulation, a signature of cancer driver genes.
2) “…cancer evolves back to be unicellular by knocking down the multicellularity-associated genetic network.

My comment: The idea that cancer “evolves back” via alternative splicing deregulation can be compared to what happens when accumulated viral microRNAs perturb the biophysically constrained chemistry of nutrient-dependent RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions. The deregulation of nutrient-dependent pre-mRNAs destabilizes the organized genomes of all living genera via DNA damage and failed maintenance of the epigenetically-effected physical landscape of DNA.


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