Cancer resistance strategies, in math models and jellyfish

What is it about?

The tissues in our bodies make new cells throughout our lives. Making new cells risks mutations that can cause cancers, so we typically think of cancer as an inevitable cost of maintaining tissue. But some animals, like jellyfish, seem to resist cancer better than others. We built a mathematical model to understand how tissues might balance the risk of cancer with the need to renew cells. In some scenarios, as expected, making new cells led to a higher risk of cancer. In other scenarios, unexpectedly, tissues could reduce cancer risk by making even more cells and then "proofreading" potential mutants out of the population. We showed in experiments that jellyfish use exactly this strategy to resist cancer.

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Photo by Marat Gilyadzinov on Unsplash

Photo by Marat Gilyadzinov on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The proofreading strategy relies on tissue processes that are also found in humans. Therefore, the paper raises the question of whether human tissues also resist cancer using a similar proofreading strategy, which would help explain how our tissues replace cells while managing the risk cancer. Understanding a safeguard against the early development of cancers could help us detect cancers earlier and prevent them.