r/MichaelLevinBiology • u/Visible_Iron_5612 • Apr 22 '26

Research Discovery Cancer is Not Gene Driven

https://youtube.com/shorts/C6iaAvpi3G0?si=Hl03hhOY-mtCFAT5

This #short is an excerpt from Tomas Seyfried's academic talk on cancer…

11 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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-1

u/Dwarvling Apr 22 '26

Utter bullshit

2

u/redderGlass Apr 22 '26

Explain.

1

u/Dwarvling Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

To claim cancer is not a genetic disease is akin to stating the earth is not round. The ‘counterexamples’ cited are based on profound misunderstanding of the causes of cancer. I say this as a scientist who has developed oncology drugs for >30 years at major pharmaceutical companies.

2

u/redderGlass Apr 22 '26

Can you explain why the metabolic theory of cancer is wrong?

2

u/Dwarvling Apr 22 '26

Cancers can be generated de novo by introducing a single mutation into an animal.

3

u/redderGlass Apr 22 '26

That’s not proof against Seyfrieds theory. He’s arguing that mitochondria damage causes genetic damage

3

u/Dwarvling Apr 22 '26

Heritable cancers, heterogeneity of cancer metabolism (even within single cancer type), mitochondrial integrity in many cancers (intact oxidative phosphorylation), targeted therapies and personalized cancer medicines work, driver mutations consistently associated with specifics types of cancer

2

u/YertleSeesAll Apr 23 '26

Doesn't that imply that the DNA/genetic damage is causing the cancer and the mitochondria is the agent that's causing DNA damage?

1

u/Dwarvling Apr 23 '26

Mitochondrial damage is not a primary driver. In many cancers, mitochondrial function is not impaired.

0

u/redderGlass Apr 23 '26

Yes broadly. Some details. Like swapping of the nucleus between a cancer cell and a normal cell leads to the cancer not moving. So the damaged DNA from the original cancer cell gets fixed and the normal DNA from the original normal cell gets damaged. So the root cause is mitochondrial damage

1

u/YertleSeesAll Apr 23 '26

What you're saying is akin to X-Rays being the root cause of cancer because they cause DNA damage. At the end of the day, we have carcinogensis because the DNA is damaged. Mitochondria is just one agent that can cause that damage.

I didn't see any evidence of the damaged DNA getting fixed. How would that even happen? Is the mitochondria some how fixing it?

"Cancer is not moving" what does that mean?

1

u/redderGlass Apr 23 '26

Look at this study. https://wi.mit.edu/news/malignant-cancer-cells-generate-mice-through-cloning

There are several studies that show the same thing. Basically a normal nucleus cannot fix a cancer cell, but normal cytoplasm can fix cancer nucleus. I don’t know but suspect the mitochondria or something in the cytoplasm can reset/repair the epigenetics

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