A research team led by the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, has discovered that the genetic sequence of a tumor can be read like a molecular clock, traced back to its most recent common ancestor cell. Extracting the duration of tumor evolution can give an accurate predictor of neuroblastoma outcomes.
In a paper published in Nature Genetics titled “Neuroblastoma arises in early fetal development and its evolutionary duration predicts outcome,” the team details the steps they took in identifying a genomic clock tested against a whole genome sequenced population combined with analysis and mathematical modeling, to identify evolution markers, traceability and a likely origin point of infant neuroblastomas.
Cancer cells start out life as heroic healthy tissues, with the sort of all for one, one for all, throw yourself on a grenade to save your mates–type attitude that is taking place throughout the body every day. At some point, something goes wrong, and a good cell goes bad.
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