Hi, I’m Aastha, and welcome to Live Longer World, where I write about health & longevity, and interview scientists researching longevity science and the frontiers of biology.
The following is a fascinating interview on cancer biology with Dr. Charley Lineweaver, whose research ranges from astrobiology to evolutionary biology and cancer. His work on cancer was done in conjunction with Dr. Paul Davies, renowned scientist and author of several popular science books. Topics include:
the evolutionary and atavistic theory of cancer
the incorrectness of the somatic mutation theory of cancer
a novel take on attacking the weakness of cancer
how embryogenesis could be viewed as cells reverting to old memory
the origins of multicellularity
“Cancer cannot do anything new”
The atavistic theory of cancer states that cancer cells revert to an old memory they have from billions of years, but forget the new memory. The old memory pertains to constant cell proliferation, which happened as single-celled creatures, and in fact in embryogenesis as well. The new memory pertains to regulating cell proliferation and cells knowing when to stop cellular division. In cancer, it seems like cells forget this new memory and revert to the old memory.
This theory has many deeper explanations and predictions which we dive into in the conversation. Enjoy!
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Note: I recorded this interview before I started going deeper into bioelectrics and cellular intelligence, otherwise I would have asked him some questions related to that, since I see some parallels in his theory and Mike Levin’s work on cellular memory.
Apologies at ~33:00 the voice breaks off a little bit.
All other platforms: here
Timestamps:
0:00 Background in astrobiology
1:53 Evolutionary theory of cancer
6:22 Atavistic model: Cancer cells go back to “original state”
9:50 Atavistic theory vs. Cancer
14:44 Somatic Mutation Theory of Cancer is Wrong
22:36 Disagreement with Michael Levin’s work
24:17 Attack the weakness of cancer
27:45 Vaccine for cancer
38:08 Wound healing and cancer
41:23 Why new genes are more susceptible to damage
45:26 Origins of multicellularity
48:49 Predictions of Atavistic model
53:45 Cancer cells spread
56:52 Cell proliferation, Cancer, Hayflick limit
58:54 Doctors are not trained in evolution
The Evolutionary Theory of Cancer