Cancer and wound healing: a story of alternative splicing

A Journal of Postdoctoral Research.

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ISSN : 2328-9791

Cancer and wound healing: a story of alternative splicing

Marco Demaria

Buck Institute for Research on Aging

Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato CA, USA

mdemaria@buckinstitute.org

In 1986 Dvorak described tumors as wounds that don't heal. His hypothesis was based on the similarities between the tumor stroma and the wound site, and on one big difference: the duration of cytokines and growth factors secretion. Wound healing is a self-limiting process, whereas each step is well defined by the secretion of specific factors for specific amounts of time. Cancer is often characterized by the chronic induction of several factors, by either the cancer cells or the surrounding tissue. This cancer-associated chronic inflammation was first observed by Rudolph Virchow in 1863, and now is considered an essential hallmark for tumourigenesis.