Open AccessCELL DIFFERENTIATION AND CARCINOGENESIS: A CRITICAL REVIEW *
Author(s) -
Dustin P.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2184.1972.tb00389.x
Subject(s) - malignancy , cellular differentiation , carcinogenesis , epiphenomenon , biology , cytoplasm , cell , population , neoplastic transformation , neoplastic cell , pathology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , cancer , medicine , gene , philosophy , environmental health , epistemology
Many resemblances exist between cell differentiation and neoplastic change: the importance of cytoplasmic factors is particularly evident, as the genotype appears to remain unmodified in the nuclei of differentiated as in malignant cells. There is no opposition between malignancy and differentiation, highly malignant cells retaining in many cases a differentiation very close to normal. Loss of differentiation in malignancy is only an epiphenomenon. While differentiation appears to be partially reversible, and in some models totally reversible, neoplastic changes are, with a very small number of exceptions, irreversible. Differentiation involves the gradual change of a group or a population of cells, malignancy of a single cell. Further work on the molecular basis of differentiation would help to understand the nature of neoplasia, and vice versa.