67: Just What Is...Cancer?

As the prevailing theory of cancer continues to be discarded more and more by researchers, Dr. Jack and Mary discuss the historical turning points that put us on this path, and where we might have gotten things wrong.

The "mature cell failing to die theory" (apoptosis) of cancer has been with us for several decades now, and may be having it's last moments as accepted theory. It implies that cells can become immortal, which we don't actually see even when evaluating the cancers cells themselves.

A better theory comes from stem cells. As undifferentiated cells within the body, they carry a degree of "immortality" until they differentiate into specific tissue cell types. They are also analogous with what we understand about the very early development of the mammalian embryo. Ironically, researcher Dr. James Beard in the late 1800's had identified what he called vagrant trophoblasts, or essentially wandering egg cells, and developed his own interpretation about their role in cancer tissues without ever calling them stem cells or identifying their particular role in the body.

Was his discovery about the correlation between cancer and the way stem cells behave under certain conditions part of the missing puzzle all these years?