- Journal List
- Br J Cancer
- v.64(4); 1991 Oct
- PMC1977704

Tumour progression and the nature of cancer.
Abstract
The nature of neoplasia and its sometime end result, cancer, has been studied by exposition and explanation of the sequential lesions of tumour progression. Neoplastic lesions were divided into four classes on the basis of growth characteristics and whether lesional growth is confined to one or more tissue compartments. Class IA, the initial lesion, an orderly, probably clonal growth, usually differentiates and disappears. Class IB: Failure to differentiate accompanied by disorderly growth. Class IC: Randomly dispersed atypical cells, constituting a precursor state. Class II, intermediate lesions, apparently arising from the atypical cells, show temporally unrestricted growth within the tissue compartment of origin. Class III lesions, primary invasive cancers, show temporally unrestricted growth in two or more tissue compartments and metastasise along different paths, a property associated with extracellular matrix interaction. The metastatic pathways may result from different subsets of cells in the primary cancer. Class IV lesions are the metastases. It was concluded that, all neoplasms develop in the same way, have the same general behavioural characteristics, and, when malignant, all interact with the extracellular matrix of the primary and the secondary sites. The origins and development of cancer are considered to be pluralistic and not due to a discrete change in a cell, whose progeny, as a result of that discrete change, carries all of the information required to explain the almost limitless events of a neoplastic system.
Full text
Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (4.3M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References.
Images in this article
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Aronson PJ, Ito K, Fukaya T, Hashimoto K, Mehregan AH. Monoclonal antibody (AFH1) immunoreactive on morphologically abnormal basal melanocytes within dysplastic nevi, nevocellular nevus nests, and melanoma. J Invest Dermatol. 1988 Apr;90(4):452–458. [PubMed]
- Aso M, Hashimoto K, Eto H, Fukaya T, Ishihara M, Shimao S, Shimizu Y. Expression of Schwann cell characteristics in pigmented nevus. Immunohistochemical study using monoclonal antibody to Schwann cell associated antigen. Cancer. 1988 Sep 1;62(5):938–943. [PubMed]
- Bergman W, Ruiter DJ, Scheffer E, van Vloten WA. Melanocytic atypia in dysplastic nevi. Immunohistochemical and cytophotometrical analysis. Cancer. 1988 Apr 15;61(8):1660–1666. [PubMed]
- Bissell MJ, Hall HG, Parry G. How does the extracellular matrix direct gene expression? J Theor Biol. 1982 Nov 7;99(1):31–68. [PubMed]
- Clark WH., Jr Human cutaneous malignant melanoma as a model for cancer. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 1991 Jun;10(2):83–88. [PubMed]
- Clark WH, Jr, Elder DE, Guerry D, 4th, Epstein MN, Greene MH, Van Horn M. A study of tumor progression: the precursor lesions of superficial spreading and nodular melanoma. Hum Pathol. 1984 Dec;15(12):1147–1165. [PubMed]
- Clark WH, Jr, Elder DE, Guerry D, 4th, Braitman LE, Trock BJ, Schultz D, Synnestvedt M, Halpern AC. Model predicting survival in stage I melanoma based on tumor progression. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1989 Dec 20;81(24):1893–1904. [PubMed]
- Dupont WD, Page DL. Risk factors for breast cancer in women with proliferative breast disease. N Engl J Med. 1985 Jan 17;312(3):146–151. [PubMed]
- Edelman GM. Topobiology. Sci Am. 1989 May;260(5):76–88. [PubMed]
- Elder DE, Rodeck U, Thurin J, Cardillo F, Clark WH, Stewart R, Herlyn M. Antigenic profile of tumor progression stages in human melanocytic nevi and melanomas. Cancer Res. 1989 Sep 15;49(18):5091–5096. [PubMed]
- Farber E, Sarma DS. Hepatocarcinogenesis: a dynamic cellular perspective. Lab Invest. 1987 Jan;56(1):4–22. [PubMed]
- Farber E. Clonal adaptation during carcinogenesis. Biochem Pharmacol. 1990 Jun 15;39(12):1837–1846. [PubMed]
- Fearon ER, Vogelstein B. A genetic model for colorectal tumorigenesis. Cell. 1990 Jun 1;61(5):759–767. [PubMed]
- Feinberg SM, Jagelman DG, Sarre RG, McGannon E, Fazio VW, Lavery IC, Weakley FL, Easley KA. Spontaneous resolution of rectal polyps in patients with familial polyposis following abdominal colectomy and ileorectal anastomosis. Dis Colon Rectum. 1988 Mar;31(3):169–175. [PubMed]
- Greene MH, Clark WH, Jr, Tucker MA, Kraemer KH, Elder DE, Fraser MC. High risk of malignant melanoma in melanoma-prone families with dysplastic nevi. Ann Intern Med. 1985 Apr;102(4):458–465. [PubMed]
- Herlyn M, Clark WH, Rodeck U, Mancianti ML, Jambrosic J, Koprowski H. Biology of tumor progression in human melanocytes. Lab Invest. 1987 May;56(5):461–474. [PubMed]
- Holzmann B, Bröcker EB, Lehmann JM, Ruiter DJ, Sorg C, Riethmüller G, Johnson JP. Tumor progression in human malignant melanoma: five stages defined by their antigenic phenotypes. Int J Cancer. 1987 Apr 15;39(4):466–471. [PubMed]
- Howat AJ, Variend S. Lymphatic invasion in Spitz nevi. Am J Surg Pathol. 1985 Feb;9(2):125–128. [PubMed]
- Kerbel RS, Waghorne C, Korczak B, Lagarde A, Breitman ML. Clonal dominance of primary tumours by metastatic cells: genetic analysis and biological implications. Cancer Surv. 1988;7(4):597–629. [PubMed]
- Liotta LA, Guirguis R, Stracke M. Biology of melanoma invasion and metastasis. Pigment Cell Res. 1987;1(1):5–15. [PubMed]
- Masri GD, Clark WH, Jr, Guerry D, 4th, Halpern A, Thompson CJ, Elder DE. Screening and surveillance of patients at high risk for malignant melanoma result in detection of earlier disease. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1990 Jun;22(6 Pt 1):1042–1048. [PubMed]
- Morikawa K, Walker SM, Nakajima M, Pathak S, Jessup JM, Fidler IJ. Influence of organ environment on the growth, selection, and metastasis of human colon carcinoma cells in nude mice. Cancer Res. 1988 Dec 1;48(23):6863–6871. [PubMed]
- Newton JA, Camplejohn RS, McGibbon DH. The flow cytometry of melanocytic skin lesions. Br J Cancer. 1988 Nov;58(5):606–609. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- Nicolson GL. Tumor cell instability, diversification, and progression to the metastatic phenotype: from oncogene to oncofetal expression. Cancer Res. 1987 Mar 15;47(6):1473–1487. [PubMed]
- Nowell PC. Chromosomal and molecular clues to tumor progression. Semin Oncol. 1989 Apr;16(2):116–127. [PubMed]
- Page DL, Dupont WD. Anatomic markers of human premalignancy and risk of breast cancer. Cancer. 1990 Sep 15;66(6 Suppl):1326–1335. [PubMed]
- Parmiter AH, Balaban G, Clark WH, Jr, Nowell PC. Possible involvement of the chromosome region 10q24----q26 in early stages of melanocytic neoplasia. Cancer Genet Cytogenet. 1988 Feb;30(2):313–317. [PubMed]
- Prehn RT. Lymphoid dependency and cutaneous melanoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1990 Apr 4;82(7):626–627. [PubMed]
- Rhodes AR, Seki Y, Fitzpatrick TB, Stern RS. Melanosomal alterations in dysplastic melanocytic nevi. A quantitative, ultrastructural investigation. Cancer. 1988 Jan 15;61(2):358–369. [PubMed]
- Rubin H. Cancer as a dynamic developmental disorder. Cancer Res. 1985 Jul;45(7):2935–2942. [PubMed]
- Schmoeckel C, Stolz W, Sakai LY, Burgeson RE, Timpl R, Krieg T. Structure of basement membranes in malignant melanoma and nevocytic nevi. J Invest Dermatol. 1989 May;92(5):663–668. [PubMed]
- Smith KJ, Barrett TL, Skelton HG, 3rd, Lupton GP, Graham JH. Spindle cell and epithelioid cell nevi with atypia and metastasis (malignant Spitz nevus). Am J Surg Pathol. 1989 Nov;13(11):931–939. [PubMed]
- Stanbridge EJ, Der CJ, Doersen CJ, Nishimi RY, Peehl DM, Weissman BE, Wilkinson JE. Human cell hybrids: analysis of transformation and tumorigenicity. Science. 1982 Jan 15;215(4530):252–259. [PubMed]
- Williams GM. The pathogenesis of rat liver cancer caused by chemical carcinogens. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1980 May 6;605(2):167–189. [PubMed]
- Yaar M, Woodley DT, Gilchrest BA. Human nevocellular nevus cells are surrounded by basement membrane components. Immunohistologic studies of human nevus cells and melanocytes in vivo and in vitro. Lab Invest. 1988 Feb;58(2):157–162. [PubMed]
- Yuspa SH, Kilkenny A, Roop DR. Aberrant differentiation in mouse skin carcinogenesis. IARC Sci Publ. 1988;(92):3–10. [PubMed]
- Zetter BR. The cellular basis of site-specific tumor metastasis. N Engl J Med. 1990 Mar 1;322(9):605–612. [PubMed]
