LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Clonal evolution in healthy and premalignant tissues: implications for early cancer interception strategies.

Photo by cravethebenefits from unsplash

Histologically normal human tissues accumulate significant mutational burden with age. The extent and spectra of mutagenesis are comparable both in rapidly proliferating and post-mitotic tissues and in stem cells compared… Click to show full abstract

Histologically normal human tissues accumulate significant mutational burden with age. The extent and spectra of mutagenesis are comparable both in rapidly proliferating and post-mitotic tissues and in stem cells compared to their differentiated progeny. Some of these mutations provide increased fitness, giving rise to clones which, at times, can replace the entire surface area of tissues. Compared to cancer, somatic mutations in histologically normal tissues are primarily single nucleotide variations. Interestingly though, the presence of these mutations and positive clonal selection in isolation remains a poor indicator of potential future cancer transformation in solid tissues. Common clonally expanded mutations in histologically normal tissues also do not always represent the most frequent early mutations in cancers of corresponding tissues, indicating differences in selection pressures. Preliminary evidence implies that stroma and immune system co-evolve with age, which may impact selection dynamics. In this review, we will explore the mutational landscape of histologically normal and pre-malignant human somatic tissues in detail and discuss cell-intrinsic and environmental factors that can determine the fate of positively selected mutations within them. Precisely pinpointing these determinants of cancer transformation would aid development of early cancer interventional and prevention strategies.

Keywords: evolution healthy; clonal evolution; healthy premalignant; histologically normal; early cancer; cancer

Journal Title: Cancer prevention research
Year Published: 2023

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.