A Deadly Signal
One of the most fascinating reports at lastweek's New Orleans seminar of the American Cancer Society was made notby a doctor or biologist, but by an aeronautical engineer. ClarenceCone Jr., of NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, was assignedby the space agency to study the effect on cell division of anyradiation that astronauts might encounter. Cone knew that normal cells,grown in the laboratory, will not multiply and crowd one another beyonda certain point. But cancer cells lack this "contact inhibition," andare joined by intimate bonds or "bridges" of cellular material.
During his research, Cone found that when a cancer cell divides, it setsoff a chain reaction. He suggests that an electrical signalaccompanying division in the first cell flashes through the network ofbridges to other cells in the group, causing all of them to dividenearly instantaneously. This process, Cone believes, helps explain theuncontrolled proliferation of cells that characterizes cancer.
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