SPATIALLY NON-UNIFORM PATTERNS DEVELOPED FROM SPATIALLY UNIFORM SYSTEMS: A MODEL STUDY OF CANCER

A numerical simulation was used to investigate the development of cancerous tumors from spatially uniform random mutations. This work shows that it is possible for distinct growths to arise from spatially uniform systems, showing that the possibility of cancer being caused simply by spatially uniform random mutations cannot be discounted, i.e. the spatially non-uniform effects of genetic predisposition and environmental factors are not necessarily required for initial cancer formation. This result is explained by spontaneous symmetry breaking.