More than one-quarter of cells in ageing, sun-exposed skin carry mutations that are known to drive cancer — even though the skin continues to function normally.
To understand how healthy cells can mutate to form cancers, Philip Jones of the University of Cambridge, UK, Peter Campbell of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and their colleagues sequenced 74 cancer-linked genes in biopsies taken from excess eyelid skin removed from four healthy people aged over 55. More than 25% of the normal cells each contained thousands of cancer-causing mutations caused by sunlight — a similar frequency to that seen in many skin-cancer cells. These cells might form a reservoir with the potential to transform into tumours.
Cancer drugs that target these mutations could damage normal cells with the same mutations, the authors suggest.
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Skin riddled with cancer mutations. Nature 521, 397 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/521397c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/521397c
