Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Study reveals cancer’s ‘infinite’ ability to evolve

Study reveals cancer’s ‘infinite’ ability to evolve

An unprecedented analysis of how cancers grow has revealed an "almost infinite" ability of tumours to evolve and survive, say scientists.

The results of tracking lung cancers for nine years left the research team "surprised" and "in awe" at the formidable force they were up against.

They have concluded we need more focus on prevention, with a "universal" cure unlikely any time soon.

Cancer Research UK said early detection of cancer was vitally important.

The study - entitled TracerX - provides the most in-depth analysis of how cancers evolve and what causes them to spread.

Cancers change and evolve over time - they are not fixed and immutable. They can become more aggressive: better at evading the immune system and able to spread around the body.

A tumour starts as a single, corrupted cell, but becomes a mixture of millions of cells that have all mutated in slightly different ways.

TracerX tracked that diversity and how it changes over time inside lung cancer patients and say the results would apply across different types of cancer.

"That has never been done before at this scale," said Prof Charles Swanton, from the Francis Crick Institute and University College London.

More than 400 people - treated at 13 hospitals in the UK - had biopsies taken from different parts of their lung cancer as the disease progressed.

"It has surprised me how adaptable tumours can be," Prof Swanton told me.

"I don't want to sound too depressing about this, but I think - given the almost infinite possibilities in which a tumour can evolve, and the very large number of cells in a late-stage tumour, which could be several hundred billion cells - then achieving cures in all patients with late-stage disease is a formidable task."

Prof Charles Swanton says challenge of tumours evolving inside our body means we need to focus on preventing cancer.


Prof Swanton said: "I don't think we're going to be able to come up with universal cures.

"If we want to make the biggest impact we need to focus on prevention, early detection and early detection of relapse."

Obesity, smoking, alcohol and poor diet all increase the risk of some cancers. Tackling inflammation in the body is also being seen as a way of preventing cancer. Inflammation is the likely explanation for air pollution causing lung cancers and inflammatory bowel disease increasing the risk of colon cancer.

The evolutionary analysis has been published across seven separate studies in the journals Nature and Nature Medicine.

The research showed:

* Highly aggressive cells in the initial tumour are the ones that ultimately end up spreading around the body

* Tumours showing higher levels of genetic "chaos" were more likely to relapse after surgery to other parts of the body

* Analysing blood for fragments of tumour DNA meant signs of it returning could be spotted up to 200 days before appearing on a CT scan

* The cellular machinery that reads the instructions in our DNA can become corrupted in cancerous cells making them more aggressive.

The researchers hope the findings could, in the future, help them predict how a patient's tumour will spread and to tailor treatment.

Dr David Crosby, the head of prevention and early detection at Cancer Research UK, said: "The exciting results emerging from TracerX improve our understanding that cancer is a disease which evolves as it progresses, meaning that late-stage cancers can become very hard to treat successfully.

"This underscores the crucial importance of further research to help us to detect cancers at the earliest stages of their development or even better, to prevent them from happening at all."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×