title: Apoptosis drives cancer cells proliferate and metastasize.
abstract: Cancer has been considered to be the result of accumulated gene mutations, which result in uncontrolled cell proliferations for a long time. Cancers are also regarded to be capable of immune evasion. Furthermore, resistance to apoptosis was recognized as an important trait of cancer in the last score of years. However, there are numerous paradoxical issues in this whole set of theory. For example, there is no known set of genes of which mutations are responsible for human cancers. As for the trait of 'resistance to apoptosis', the fact is that cancer has increased frequency of apoptosis. The more malignant the tumour is, the more apoptosis shows. In this study, we propose a new theory that apoptosis plays a key role in the malignant progression and metastasis of cancer. The growth of tumour is the difference between tumour cell proliferation and attrition plus the hyperplastic growth of stroma. Increased and unpreventable death caused by innate or environmental factors such as ischaemia and inflammation drives the tumour cells to proliferate relentlessly, move to new lands to establish colonies. In short, increased cell death is the origin of malignancy.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tumor Biology, Department of Pathology and Pathophysiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China. wangra@fmmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Rui-An
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qin-Long
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zeng-Shan
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ping-Ju
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Hui-Zhong
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Su-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: An-Gang
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Rutao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins