Finding validates cancer causation theory

BOSTON, Oct 12, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Boston researchers have determined abnormal cell division yielding cells with an extra set of chromosomes can initiate tumor development in mice.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists say their finding validates a controversial theory about cancer causation postulated nearly 100 years ago.

The so-called "double-value" cells are produced by random errors in cell division that occur with unknown frequency. The genetically unstable cells appears to be a "pathway for generating a tumor," said Dr. David Pellman, the study's senior author.

He said the research was performed in experimental animals, but "double-value" cells are seen in various early human cancers and in Barrett's esophagus, a precancerous condition.

In addition, the "double value" or "tetraploid" cells also duplicate a cell structure called the centrosome that plays a role in maintaining a stable genome.

Pellman said the extra centrosomes may be at the root of the cancer-triggering process.

The finding support theories presented by Theodor Boveri, a German scientist of the 19th Century. In 1914 he published what Pellman calls an "amazingly accurate and prescient" treatise suggesting, among other things, genetic instability was a cause of malignancies.

The research appears in the Oct. 13 issue of Nature.

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