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Children’s Tumours
•
Differ in their frequency and tissues of origin,
•
numbers and types of genetic mutations,
•
sensitivity to chemotherapy
•
arise within growing and developing organs, at a time when the tissue
microenvironment promotes rapid growth development. The majority
are sporadic. Although the more you look, the more predisposing
mutations you find
Normal developing tissues
•
have biological characteristics that sustain growth and development: ie.
sustained cell division, migration and resistance to cell death
•
Tissue growth rates decelerate after birth through to end of adolescence.
A Developmental Hypothesis for Childhood Cancer
Scotting Perilongo & Walker Nature Reviews Cancer (2005) 5; 481-488