A general concept for molecular biology of cancer.

The demonstrations that "fetal" isozymes and other fetal or "oncodevelopmental" antigens are present in tumor cells has led to the general concept that genes normally silent in adult tissues are activated during the neoplastic process. Recent evidence that some chromatin proteins of tumor cells are fetal antigens has suggested that some of the "switches" involved in gene activation for tumor growth may also be fetal or oncodevelopmental. These results have led to current theoretical concept that fetal gene derepressors interact with the genome to produce messenger RNA for the protein products involved for growth, invasiveness, and metastasis. These processes may not be controllable in adult cells because of the lack of inhibitors, which were present during embryonic development but are not produced in adult tissues.