Extrait du billet de SD
Mutation theory vs. aneuploidy
Duesbeg’s ar guments derive from his controversial proposal that the
reigning theory of cancer — that tumors begin when a handful of
mutated genes send a cell into uncontrolled growth — is wrong. He
argues, instead, that carcinogenesis is initiated by a disruption of
the chromosomes, which leads to duplicates, deletions, breaks and other
chromosomal damage that alter the balance of tens of thousands of
genes. The result is a cell with totally new traits — that is, a new
phenotype.
"I think Duesberg is correct by criticizing mutation theory, which
sustains a billion-dollar drug industry focused on blocking these
mutations,« said Vincent, a medical oncologist. »Yet very, very few
cancers have been cured by targeted drug therapy, and even if a drug
helps a patient survive six or nine more months, cancer cells often
find a way around it."
Chromosomal disruption, called aneuploidy, is known to cause
disease. Down syndrome, for example, is caused by a third copy of
chromosome 21, one of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. All cancer
cells are aneuploid, Duesberg said, though proponents of the mutation
theory of cancer argue that this is a consequence of cancer, not the
cause.