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Originally Posted by bender118
Heh, from inert tumor to invasive parasite in a single generation.
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I'm not sure where you read that, in the article it says the original tumour appeared some 2,000 years ago.
From the little i have read it appears to be a simple mutation, something in the MHC genes that help the body determine self from non-self. Cancers spread in the body, we already knew that, they spread between totally different tissues within an organism. The only thing preventing their successful transferrance to another individual was said MHC complexes. With the MHC complex offline, there is really nothing stopping the cancer spreading to another individual.
It just goes to show how little really needs to change in the genetic makeup of an organism for it to produce a marked difference in phenotypic ability.
09-15-2006, 08:50 AM
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