Cancer a degenerative disorder?
David A. Rew
Cancer is primarily a disease of ageing epithelia, and of ageing individuals. We now possess detailed insights into the changes in cell regulatory genes and DNA repair systems which accumulate with time and which manifest in malignancy. These demonstrate how cancer is frequently characterized by degenerative change in the genotype, from the most subtle base pair mutations to gross aneupioidy, and by deterioration in cell and tissue regulatory control, be it of proliferation, programmed cell death or signalling.
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