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Mechanism of Carcinogenesis by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Aneuploidy precedes malignant transformation and occurs in all cancers

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Book cover Technological and Medical Implications of Metabolic Control Analysis

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((ASHT,volume 74))

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Abstract

Despite over loo years of cancer research, including huge investments in the last decades to find cancer-specific mutations, the genetic causes of most cancers are still unclear. Over too cancer-specific mutations have been identified (Bishop, 1995; Mitelmanet et al., 1997; Haber & Fearon, 1998), but there is as yet no functional proof that any one of these mutations or a combination of them causes cancer (Duesberg, 1995; Lijinsky, 1989). The challenge is to explain the complex and heterogenous phenotypes of cancer cells (Hansemann, 1890; Heim & Mitelman, 1995), and the very slow and inefficient mechanism of carcinogenesis (Cairns, 1978). Cancer-specific phenotypes include (i) abnormal growth rates, (ii) metabolism, (iii) morphology and composition; (iv) neoantigens not expressed in the tissue of origin; (v) dedifferentiation or anaplasia (Hansemann, 1890); (vi) progression of malignancy generating invasiveness and metastasis; (vii) abnormally high numbers of centrosomes, i.e. over 2 (Brinkley & Goepfert, 1998); and (viii) genetic or karyotypic instability, generating polymorphism of all of these properties among the cells of the same cancers (Hansemann, 1890; Winge, 1930; Hauschka, 1961; Nowell, 1976; Heppner & Miller, 1998), despite their clonal origin (Cairns, 1978; Heim & Mitelman, 1995; Nowell, 1976)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Peter Duesberg, Ruhong Li & David Rasnick

  2. II Medizinische Klinik Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg, Wiesbadener Str. 7-11, Mannheim, 68305, Germany

    Peter Duesberg, Charlotte Rausch, Andreas Willer, Alwin Kraemer & Ruediger Hehlmann

  3. Cytogen Research & Development, 89 Bellview Hill Rd, Boston, MA, 02132, USA

    George Yerganian

  4. Foster Research Laboratory, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02254, USA

    George Yerganian

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  1. Peter Duesberg
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  4. Andreas Willer
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  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Bioénergétique et Ingéniérie des Protéines, Marseille, France

    Athel Cornish-Bowden  & María Luz Cárdenas  & 

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Duesberg, P. et al. (2000). Mechanism of Carcinogenesis by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Aneuploidy precedes malignant transformation and occurs in all cancers . In: Cornish-Bowden, A., Cárdenas, M.L. (eds) Technological and Medical Implications of Metabolic Control Analysis. NATO Science Series, vol 74. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4072-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4072-0_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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