The Developmental Origins of Cancer: A Review of the Genes Expressed in Embryonic Cells with Implications for Tumorigenesis.

Tumorigenesis, which involves the uncontrolled proliferation and differentiation of cells, has been observed to imitate a variety of pathways vital to embryonic development, motivating cancer researchers to explore the genetic origins of these pathways. The pluripotency gene regulatory network is an established collection of genes that induces stemness in embryonic cells. Dysregulation in the expression genes of the pluripotency gene networks including , , and have been implicated in tumor development, and have been observed to result in poorer patient outcomes. The p53 pathway is a highly important regulatory process in a multitude of cell types, including embryonic, and the tumor suppressor gene is widely regarded as being one of the most important genes involved in tumorigenesis. Dysregulations in expression, along with altered expression of developmentally originating p53 regulators such as and have been implicated in various cancers, leading to poorer prognosis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), the process allowing epithelial cells to undergo biochemical changes to mesenchymal phenotypes, also plays a vital role in the fate of both embryonic and neoplastic cells. Genes that regulate EMT such as , and have been associated with an increased occurrence of EMT in cancer cells, leading to enhanced cell stemness, proliferation and metastasis. The class of RNA that does not encode for proteins, known as non-coding RNA, has been implicated in a variety of cellular processes and emerging research has shown that its dysregulation can lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation and differentiation. Genes that have been shown to play a role in this dysregulation include , and , and have been associated with poorer patient outcomes and more aggressive cancer subtypes. The identification of these developmentally regulated genes in tumorigenesis has proved to play an advantageous role in cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and has provided researchers with a multitude of new target mechanisms for novel chemotherapeutic research.