Industasis, a Promotion of Tumor Formation by Nontumorigenic Stray Cells

Abstrakt

A tumor cell is formed when a critical amount of endogenous and/or exogenous tumorigenic stimuli is exceeded. We have shown that the transient presence of nontumorigenic stray cells in tissues of experimental animals that contain cells with a subcritical set of genetic mutations can act as a tumor-promoting stimulus.Based on such observations, we propose the mechanism termed industasis, a promotion of fully malignant phenotype of incipient tumor cell by stray cells, and hypothesize that it might be the underlying cause of human multiple primary tumors.