Something I came Across

mike3121

See link below:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-07-non-genetic-cancer-mechanism.html

dlb823

Thanks for posting. Not at all sure I understand much of it, so I would welcome input from anyone who can explain it a bit more, especially since it's termed a major breakthrough in the understanding of how cancer starts.

Heidihill

Previous research findings have emphasised the roots of cancer in genetic mutation. Some studies have pointed to cancers that occur without genetic causes, such as through epigenetic modifications of proteins, however the present study reveals that signalling though cell wall-based receptors can occur without receptor activation and therefore that non-genetic causes may be critical to understanding cancer in large numbers of patients.

I think the above sentence is key. This is neither about genetic nor epigenetic causes, rather an imbalance of proteins triggering the AKT pathway, leading to cell proliferation and tumor formation. The two proteins plc gamma 1 and grb2 compete with each other to bind to FGFR2. If there's not enough of grb2, plc gamma 1 prevails and gets out of control. The more GRB2, which seem to be the good guys, the better. GRB2 stymies metastasis. Just don't ask me what GRB2 is.

http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/news-releases/2014/two-proteins-metatasis-at-stake.html

Heidihill

Also don't know how this works with breast cancer.