Abstract
According to estimates from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, by the year 2030 there will be 22 million new cancer cases and 13 million deaths per year. The main cause of cancer mortality is not the primary tumor itself but metastasis to distant organs and tissues, yet the mechanisms of this process remain poorly understood. Leukocyte–cancer cell fusion and hybrid formation as an initiator of metastasis was proposed more than a century ago by the German pathologist Prof. Otto Aichel. This proposal has since been confirmed in more than 50 animal models and more recently in one patient with renal cell carcinoma and two patients with malignant melanoma. Leukocyte–tumor cell fusion provides a unifying explanation for metastasis. While primary tumors arise in a wide variety of tissues representing not a single disease but many different diseases, metastatic cancer may be only one disease arising from a common, nonmutational event: Fusion of primary tumor cells with leukocytes. From the findings to date, it would appear that such hybrid formation is a major pathway for metastasis. Studies on the mechanisms involved could uncover new targets for therapeutic intervention.
Highlights
Several years ago, our group became attracted to a proposal published in 1911 by a German pathologist, Prof
Aichel provided an explanation for metastasis but he predicted the science of cancer epigenetics
We studied a primary renal cell carcinoma from a female patient who, two years the use of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)
Summary
Our group became attracted to a proposal published in 1911 by a German pathologist, Prof. We studied a primary renal cell carcinoma from a female patient who, two years the use of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). (green) plus the Y chromosome (red), indicating that the cell was a hybrid between a patient and a cells were in abundance in an area covering about 10% of the tumor, suggesting a clonal origin of the male donor cell. Such cells were in abundance in an area covering about 10% of the tumor, suggesting hybrids.
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