Rewriting the Mathematics of Tumor Growth

Extract

A new theory about tumor growth makes oncology look a little like cosmology. Just as the universe accelerates as it expands, tumors become malignant at an accelerating speed, according to a team of scientists who have been probing the mathematics of tumor growth.

Specifically, the researchers have discovered that tumor-driving mutations characteristic of nearly all cancer cells have a surprisingly small selective growth advantage of 0.4%. That advantage isn’t large enough to sustain tumor growth, which calls into question the long-held belief that tumors result from one or two mutations.

“The most important take-away message from this research is that relying on genome studies to identify one wrong component is not the right approach,” said surgical oncologist Steven Libutti , M.D., director of the Montefiore–Einstein Center for Cancer Care at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “Any individual mutation makes only a small contribution to the overall appearance of a cancer, and early mutations alone are probably not the only story.”