doi: 10.5732/cjc.013.10243

Fusion of bone marrow-derived cells with cancer cells: metastasis as a secondary disease in cancer

John M. Pawelek

Department of Dermatology and the Yale Cancer Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8059, USA.

[Abstract] This perspective article highlights the leukocyte-cancer cell hybrid theory as a mechanism for cancer metastasis. Beginning from the first proposal of the theory more than a century ago and continuing today with the first proof for this theory in a human cancer, the hybrid theory offers a unifying explanation for metastasis. In this scenario, leukocyte fusion with a cancer cell is a secondary disease superimposed upon the early tumor, giving birth to a new, malignant cell with a leukocyte-cancer cell hybrid epigenome.

Chinese Journal of Cancer 2014, Volume: 33, Issue 3, Page: 133-139

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John M. Pawelek. Fusion of bone marrow-derived cells with cancer cells: metastasis as a secondary disease in cancer. Chin J Cancer. 2014, 33(3):133-139. doi:10.5732/cjc.013.10243


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