Oncogerminative hypothesis of tumor formation.
The oncogerminative hypothesis of tumor formation states that during malignant transformation of somatic cells part of the germinative cell genome is activated. This part determines the phenotype property of the germinative cell: its potential immortality realized during its life cycle. In malignant cells this activated part of the genome also determines immortality in its life cycle. The life cycle of the cell may be divided into five stages: 1) the reproduction stage under the influence of promotors; 2) the stage of multicellular oncospheroid formation (the parody of blastocyst) characterized by heterogeneous composition of cellular population consisting of three major phenotypically different cells: oncogerminative ones (stem), oncotrophoblast (fulfilling trophic function) and oncosomatic ones (differentiated) imitating germinative, trophoblast and somatic cells of the embryo respectively; 3) the stage of malignant tumor formation which consist of the vascularization of the oncospheroid and its growth under the conditions of anatomic contacts with the organism; 4) the stage of disaggregation of the oncogerminative cells which manifested in the organism by process of metastatic spreading; 5) the stage of formation of metastatic tumors. The change of the ratio of oncogerminative, oncotrophoblast and oncosomatic cells in metastatic tumors is a basis of tumor progression.
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R.E. Kavetsky Institute for Oncology Problems, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of Neurohumoral Mechanisms of Antitumoral Resistance, Head, Kiev.
D000818:Animals; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology