Question ID: WS-41
Submitted by: Patrick Brown
February 4, 2011
The seemingly inevitable accumulation of diverse benign, focal changes in skin pigment, texture, microvasculature, hair color and texture, etc., with aging and sun-exposure suggests that numerous mutation-dependent clonal expansions of (presumably) stromal cells accumulate with age, perhaps throughout the body. How common are these locally expanded mutant clones, where in the body are they found, what are the cells, what are the mutations that enable their expansion and how do they accumulate with age? Do they ever play a role in cancer pathogenesis by providing microenvironments favorable for development, survival or self-renewal of cancer cells? Do they play a role in providing “soil” favorable for establishment and growth of metastatic “seeds”?
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