Cancers are diseases of abnormal cellular growth, and although many are treatable or even curable, their origins are not necessarily clear. Understanding the precise timing of cellular events—as cells transition from normal to cancerous conditions—is key to uncovering new treatments or diagnostic opportunities. Scientists from Vanderbilt University, led by Mirazul Islam, a graduate student mentored by Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Ken Lau and Professor of Medicine Robert Coffey, have laid the groundwork for understanding and predicting the natural transition between precancers and cancer.
They showed that colorectal cancer is likely to arise from multiple normal cells in the intestinal epithelium, not just from a single cell. This work lays the foundation for how this approach could be extended to record other aspects of cell activity, such as the timing of when signaling events occur. "We hope that adding a temporal axis enables a fundamental understanding of tissue development and disease," Lau said.
Although only a low percentage of precancers progress to cancer, the only current predictor of colorectal cancer progression is the size of polyps—small clumps of cells that can become cancerous—in the colon. The researchers have developed a precise molecular "clock" that records the timing of cellular events at a single-cell resolution. This work, published in the journal Nature , helps decipher the origin of colorectal cancer.
Prior to Islam and Lau's wo.