Cancer as a programmed death of an organism.
The hypothesis introduces the idea that there is a critical level of mutagenesis that triggers a program of organism death by means of proliferation of killer cells. Similarly to apoptosis, which is an altruistic suicidal act of a faulty cell threatening the stability of a multicellular organism, a malignant tumor is an altruistic suicide of an individual carrier of harmful alleles threatening genetic stability of the population.
Lichtenstein
A V
AV
Institute of Carcinogenesis, Blokhin Cancer Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, 115478, Russia. alicht@online.ru
D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*