There was a post about a woman who grew a “homonculus tumor”, with brain tissue, teeth, a spinal nerves and other organs. But how? Human bodies can’t grow those things after birth, AFAIK. For example, once your adult teeth are in, that’s it. So how are tumors able to do this? Are the cells in tumors different from those found normally in human body?
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Many tumors have mutations that reactivate Gene’s that are only active during embriogenesis. Your cells contain all the genetic information required to grow you from an embryo. These Gene’s are controlled ie. turned off, after their job is done (embryo – fetus). Cancer cells accumulate mutations due to their irregular growth, and chance can cause these embryonic Gene’s to become active again. This can rarely occur in stem cells that are not fully differentiated (locked into a specific tissue type), and this can lead to the growth of a variety of tissue types. There are even examples of cancer mutations reversing differentiated cells into a pluripotent form (they can turn into variety of tissues).
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