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Onco-ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny – a consideration

Oncogene volume 40, pages 1542–1550 (2021)Cite this article

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Cancers necessarily rely on the (embryologic) fundamental growth patterning genes to serve their uncontrolled growth. Studying a cancer’s behavior, depending on which side of an embryological divide it derives, together with its transcriptome and its relationship to immigrant cells with stem cell potential, intercellular signaling and transducer cascades to transcription factors—all help our understanding of the cancer phenotype. To these can be added the acquired methylome and possibly a “knock-on” metabolome. These aspects are reviewed in the context of Haeckel’s law.

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Fig. 1: Patient with high grade malignant neuroendocrine tumor of the colon with liver metastases (biopsy proven).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Bhupinder Sharma for collating the images of our NET patient.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Oncology, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London, UK

    P. N. Plowman

  2. University College London, London, UK

    C. E. Plowman

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Correspondence to P. N. Plowman.

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PNP declares that he has in the past been an advisor to Chronix Biomedical and is currently an advisor to Datar Cancer Genetics.

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Plowman, P.N., Plowman, C.E. Onco-ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny – a consideration. Oncogene 40, 1542–1550 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-020-01624-1

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