Seemingly healthy aging tissues can already carry cancer-linked mutations, thanks to a new single-cell mapping breakthrough, according to the Cornell Chronicle. Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center uncovered widespread pre-cancerous changes hiding in plain sight.
Using a new technique called single-cell Genotype-to-Phenotype sequencing, researchers tracked DNA mutations and gene activity in thousands of individual cells at once. In esophageal tissue from older adults, more than half the cells carried cancer-driver mutations, most commonly in the NOTCH1 gene, which disrupted normal cell development and led to abnormal cell buildup.
The findings could reshape early cancer detection and prevention by targeting risky cell clones before tumors ever form.
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