ArticlePhysical biology2011
Cancer tumors as Metazoa 1.0: tapping genes of ancient ancestors.
Article in Physical biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 247 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systemic Alterations of Cancer Cells and Their Boost by Polyploidization: Unicellular Attractor (UCA) Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Cellular Biogenetic Law and Its Distortion by Protein Interactions: A Possible Unified Framework for Cancer Biology and Regenerative Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Diet, Microbes, and Cancer Across the Tree of Life: a Systematic Review.Current nutrition reports · 2022Pooled it
- Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life.Acta biotheoretica · 2026Review
- Evolution of malignant tumors as neoorgan and predictions of future scenarios resulting from inappropriate treatment.Medical review (2021) · 2026Article
- Tumor heterogeneity: development, mechanisms, and therapeutic implications.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Rapid evolution of lncRNAs introduces novel regulatory inputs into ancestral cancer pathways.Science advances · 2026Article
- In Silico Identification of Conserved 'Fungal Islands' in Human Septin9: Evidence for Atavistic Therapeutic Targets.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Review
- Tracing Genetic Images Formed During Evolution.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Cancer as an evolutionary reversal-time for a paradigm shift.Translational breast cancer research : a journal focusing on translational research in breast cancer · 2026Article
- AI-Guided Inference of Morphodynamic Attractor-like States in Glioblastoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evolutionary Transcriptomics of Cancer Development.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Basal Xenobot transcriptomics reveals changes and novel control modality in cells freed from organismal influence.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The Multiscale Wisdom of the Body: Collective Intelligence as a Tractable Interface for Next-Generation Biomedicine.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- The end of the genetic paradigm of cancer.PLoS biology · 2025Review
- The evolutionary theory of cancer: challenges and potential solutions.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2024Review
- The Spiral Model of Evolution: Stable Life Forms of Organisms and Unstable Life Forms of Cancers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Origins of cancer: ain't it just mature cells misbehaving?The EMBO journal · 2024Review
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The genes of cellular cooperation that evolved with multicellularity about a billion years ago are the same genes that malfunction to cause cancer. We hypothesize that cancer is an atavistic condition that occurs when genetic or epigenetic malfunction unlocks an ancient 'toolkit' of pre-existing adaptations, re-establishing the dominance of an earlier layer of genes that controlled loose-knit colonies of only partially differentiated cells, similar to tumors. The existence of such a toolkit implies that the progress of the neoplasm in the host organism differs distinctively from normal Darwinian evolution. Comparative genomics and the phylogeny of basal metazoans, opisthokonta and basal multicellular eukaryotes should help identify the relevant genes and yield the order in which they evolved. This order will be a rough guide to the reverse order in which cancer develops, as mutations disrupt the genes of cellular cooperation. Our proposal is consistent with current understanding of cancer and explains the paradoxical rapidity with which cancer acquires a suite of mutually-supportive complex abilities. Finally we make several predictions and suggest ways to test this model.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.