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Recent study: Cancer not necessarily due to long, slow process of mutation

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A woman who has had a normal mammogram shortly afterward develops an aggressive tumour?

In “Cancer Can Develop in Catastrophic Burst”, Nicholas Wade ( New York Times, January 10, 2011) reports

The finding marks a striking exception to the current theory of how cancer develops. Cells are thought to become cancerous over many years as they collect, one by one, the mutations required to override the many genetic restraints on a cell’s growth. It now seems that a cell can gain all or most of these cancerous mutations in a single event.

Darwinists might well contain their hopes, however. It is a single destructive event. Not a single creative event.

Usually a cell that suffers this much damage will destroy itself, either immediately or after it has tried unsuccessfully to repair its chromosomes. But in certain cases, the self-destruct mechanism evidently fails, leaving a cell like Frankenstein’s monster, with badly patched-up chromosomes but a survival advantage that leads to unrestrained growth.

The survival advantage is that cancer cells don’t do anything except grow until they kill the entire body without leaving descendants.

So much for life and growth without design.

Comments
What if cancer is caused by genetic information from a fungus such as candida, and is not necessarily the result of the accumulation of mutations? Perhaps cancerous cells produce energy by by-passing the Krebs cycle because they have been impregnated by a pathogen. http://www.candidafree.co.uk/ This is something ID proponents ought to be investigating in my opinion.Steno
April 6, 2011
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If you could further explain the relevance of this study to the question of ID or evolution, it would be very much appreciated. There is a discussion about mutations and cancer. This has been known for years. Therefore, the only novel (if you could even say that) portion of the paper shows that it can occur quickly. This has always been possible but hard to actually examine, since the cancer is indeed so fast. If this has any relation to ID or evolution, please provide an explanation.Yossarian
April 5, 2011
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