Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Cancer

Scientists have discovered a molecular switch that can reverse cancer—turning cancer cells back into their healthy counterparts.

The revelation by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea, could lead to new cancer treatments.

"We have discovered a molecular switch that can revert the fate of cancer cells back to a normal state," said paper author and biologist professor Kwang-Hyun Cho in a statement.

They did this, he explained, by "capturing the moment of critical transition right before normal cells are changed into an irreversible cancerous state."

A critical transition, the researchers explain, is when a radical change in state occurs at a specific point in time. A recognizable case, for example, is when water changes into steam at 212 Fahrenheit when boiled in a kettle.

Another critical transition also occurs at a specific point in time in the process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells, as the result of an accumulation of both genetic and epigenetic changes.

In their study, Cho and colleagues found that—on the cusp of this transformation, during the development of tumors, or "tumorigenesis"—normal cells enter an unstable state in which normal and cancer cells coexist.

Probing this critical transition using a systems biology approach, the team created a system to infer a model of the genetic network that controls cancer development, and then uses this to find a molecular switch that can reverse the process.

The team put their system through its paces with a trial on colon cancer cells—showing via subsequent experiments that the cancer cells could recover the characteristics of normal cells.

"This study has revealed in detail, at the genetic network level, what changes occur within cells behind the process of cancer development, which has been considered a mystery until now," Cho added.

He concluded: "This is the first study to reveal that an important clue that can revert the fate of tumorigenesis is hidden at this very moment of change."

The researchers anticipate that the technology will be applied to create treatments to reverse other forms of cancer in the future.

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Reference

Shin, D., Gong, J.-R., Jeong, S. D., Cho, Y., Kim, H.-P., Kim, T.-Y., & Cho, K.-H. (2025). Attractor Landscape Analysis Reveals a Reversion Switch in the Transition of Colorectal Tumorigenesis. Advanced Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202412503