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The Embryonic Rest Hypothesis of Cancer Development: 150 Years Later

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Trends in Stem Cell Proliferation and Cancer Research

Abstract

More than 150 years ago, Rudolf Virchow and Julius Cohnheim proposed the intriguing hypothesis that cancer may develop from embryonic cell remnants that remain in the developing organs following embryogenesis. This hypothesis, known as the “embryonic rest hypothesis of cancer development,” was popular in textbooks of pathology in the ninetieth and twentieth centuries. At that time, the concept of stem cells was still unknown, and thus it was not clear what types of cells could be responsible for tumor occurrence. However, what was clear at that time was that the morphology of several tumors mimics developmentally early tissues. Today we know that some tumors express early developmental markers characteristic of embryonic cells, which could reflect either the epigenetic dedifferentiation of the somatic cells in which cancer develops to the state of early embryonic cells or that cancer originates in primitive stem cells closely related to the epiblast/germline. The identification of primitive epiblast/germline-derived very small embryonic/epiblast-like stem cells in several adult organs raised the possibility that cancer originates in these rare cells. Thus, very small embryonic/epiblast-like stem cells could be a missing link supporting this more than 150-year-old concept; however, further experimental evidence is needed to prove this tempting hypothesis.

From the Stem Cell Institute at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA and Department of Physiology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Institute at James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, 500 S. Floyd Street, Rm. 107, Louisville, KY, 40202, USA

    Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, Maciej Tarnowski, Sylwia Borkowska & Karol Serwin

Authors
  1. Mariusz Z. Ratajczak
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  2. Maciej Tarnowski
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  3. Sylwia Borkowska
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  4. Karol Serwin
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Correspondence to Mariusz Z. Ratajczak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rodrigo R. Resende

  2. Depto. Bioquímica, Universidade de São Paulo Inst. Química, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Henning Ulrich

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Ratajczak, M.Z., Tarnowski, M., Borkowska, S., Serwin, K. (2013). The Embryonic Rest Hypothesis of Cancer Development: 150 Years Later. In: Resende, R., Ulrich, H. (eds) Trends in Stem Cell Proliferation and Cancer Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6211-4_3

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