Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Can we eat tumors? (yes, tumors as in cancer)

Can we eat tumors? (yes, tumors as in cancer)

cmos6667 - 29-4-2015 at 06:10

This may be wayyyy out of line but it is in no way meant as a joke:

Basically, any cells we eat are broken down into nucleotides and amino acids among others, right?
Cancer is uncontrolled growth of cells that are useless, so eventually there are no more healthy cells to do the job they should, which is why you die.
Now, I'm not saying we should eat *human* tumors, but hypothetically:

What if we took fresh cells from a chicken and gave it something carcinogenic - wouldn't that be edible? We're breaking it down anyway, no?

Anybody care to tell me what I'm missing?

Edit: forgot to mention that the carcinogen wouldn't be catalytically active (eg MeI, where you just keep adding until the tumor grows)

[Edited on 29-4-2015 by cmos6667]

blogfast25 - 29-4-2015 at 06:42

Tumor cells are broken down in the digestive system in the same way as other cells.

cmos6667 - 29-4-2015 at 07:18

so that's a yes then? WOOHOO NOBEL PRIZE HERE I COME!!!

Loptr - 29-4-2015 at 07:34

Quote: Originally posted by cmos6667

so that's a yes then? WOOHOO NOBEL PRIZE HERE I COME!!!

Are you thinking about growing tumors as food?

[Edited on 29-4-2015 by Loptr]

[Edited on 29-4-2015 by Loptr]

cmos6667 - 29-4-2015 at 08:22

yes, with pulverized corn

aga - 29-4-2015 at 08:22

I'm pretty sure Cancer Burgers would be difficult to sell to the public.

Then again, seems that others have been doing so for years, so you may be in luck !

cmos6667 - 29-4-2015 at 08:35

right, the ethics thing again, almost forgot about the palm oil argument

[Edited on 29-4-2015 by cmos6667]

jock88 - 29-4-2015 at 08:42

There is a restaurant in iceland that specializes in serving tumours. (warts an all)

Loptr - 29-4-2015 at 09:26

Quote: Originally posted by cmos6667

right, the ethics thing again, almost forgot about the palm oil argument

[Edited on 29-4-2015 by cmos6667]

Not even so much ethics, but clientele interest in eating a meal made from cancerous tissue. I think the fear factor may be a major issue with this one.

WGTR - 29-4-2015 at 09:28

aga - 29-4-2015 at 11:41

Quote: Originally posted by cmos6667

so that's a yes then? WOOHOO NOBEL PRIZE HERE I COME!!!

If you can pull it off, i think you're onto a Winner there.

Rapididy of growth : (can be) High
Protein Content: High
Limited by own growth: No

Damn. Get to it so we can all have affordable cancer !

DraconicAcid - 29-4-2015 at 11:55

Quote: Originally posted by jock88

There is a restaurant in iceland that specializes in serving tumours. (warts an all)

That sounds like a joke about their clientele.

Zombie - 29-4-2015 at 15:19

Soylent Green anyone.

I'm fighting a severe gag reflux right now.

Well, like they say... I wonder who the first person who thought of eating _ _ _ _ _ _ was?

This is just disgusting. Not the idea but the idea of the idea. Good luck

crazyboy - 29-4-2015 at 15:33

Cool idea, many cancer cell lines already exist. A sarcoma cell line designed for robustness and simple media could be used to make ground meat. Growing mammalian cells however is very difficult, because of the slow doubling time (~20hrs) and the need for many growth factors (fetal bovine serum). Cancer cells obviously grow quickly and divide in the absence of some growth factors. I wonder if you could get a cancer cell line with extremely fast doubling time and little to no growth factor requirements.

Bert - 29-4-2015 at 19:07

Why not use TURKEY cells? Maybe with a little gene splicing, you could get a nice sweet potato taste built in!

[Edited on 30-4-2015 by Bert]

Zombie - 29-4-2015 at 20:05

Oh my goodness. I was RIGHT!

That's exactly how us Zombies got started. 7-11 Slurpies anyone?

Mailinmypocket - 30-4-2015 at 02:42

If you've ever eaten cheap hotdog wieners then you probably have eaten some bits and pieces of tumors (not to mention a couple lips and and a**holes as well)

Now I want a hot dog.

Varmint - 30-4-2015 at 02:57

I'd be concerned about the presence of prions. Supposedly able to withstand cooking temps, these are the "almost viruses" responsible for things like BSE (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).

Why would I be concerned? Because I don't know what causes cancer cells to do their thing. And after arguably billions of $ in research, even the best informed will admit the science is far from settled.

Oh, and eat kosher hotdogs and you'll be eating real food.

cmos6667 - 30-4-2015 at 03:56

On a bio level, cancer is just cells replicating (meaning that they also synthesize the enzymes necessary to break down nutrients), so overall you get massive amounts of enzymes you would normally pay for
Regarding prions: those can be filtered out

I'm in no way saying this can be done by someone in their garage, but take Weider or any other protein shake manufacturer for example - all they do is recover protein by sieving, dehydrate that (not freeze drying), add some enzymes and done, you have your protein shake.
Fair enough, it's a crazy idea but so was soylent green and look how that turned out

Chemosynthesis - 30-4-2015 at 04:27

Affinity chromatography or the like is a bit more complicated than filtering, and would have be designed for each known prion in culture. I wouldn't be too concerned with a stable culture, but the problem is that cell lines, particularly cancers, dedifferentiate with passage number. Cancer isn't just a growth problem-- that's too much of a simplification. Cancer progresses. You get methylation, chromosomal, and finally morphological differences with progression.

Rhabomyosarcoma may have been a particular sarcoma of interest if it were feasible, to add to Crazyboy's sarcoma point.

DraconicAcid - 30-4-2015 at 09:32

If you start selling tumour burgers, your competition will have Ahnold as a spokesperson..."It's naht a tooomour!"

AJKOER - 30-4-2015 at 09:42

You are going to need a good marketing person.

May I dare suggest someone who has success in having people eat dirt or worse (fast food background comes to mInd).
------------------------------------------------

I am glad we don't get more of these threads on ScienceMadness, else I will have to time my visits carefully with respect to meals (assuming I will ever eat again).

[Edited on 30-4-2015 by AJKOER]

jock88 - 30-4-2015 at 13:14

The average 'healthy' chicken is taken from egg to a great big lump of a thing in about 5 weeks. If the chicken is not killed at this age and is allowed to continue to grow to say about 7 weeks, it can no longer walk.
This is more that cancer speed growth and is considered 'wholesome' and 'good'.

GOOD MFA.

aga - 30-4-2015 at 13:53

Quote: Originally posted by cmos6667

Fair enough, it's a crazy idea but so was soylent green and look how that turned out

This is not a crazy idea.

It is basically harnessing the power of cancerous cells to create edible protein at a high rate.

Benefits :-

1. Rapid and cheap production of human food.
2. Less need for livestock maintenence/slaughter
3. Plenty of in vitro live cultures of cancer cells to study.
4. Ethical vegetarians can eat it (no animal was killed)

Two markets here : burgers and cancer research.

I'll have a word with a Kosher expert and a well-versed Imam to see if this can be made both Kosher and Halal at the same time.

You may well have bridged the gap between the pathetically slow pace of cancer research and the lack of funding.

I'm in for 20% if you can do it.

U2U me the funding requirements.

Chemosynthesis - 30-4-2015 at 14:39

Quote: Originally posted by jock88

This is more that cancer speed growth and is considered wholesome' and 'good'.

GOOD MFA.

No it is not. "Cancer" is a diverse disease unique in DNA to and from the individual organism hosting it, with many different specific etiologies depending on what pathways are altered. Because cancer utilizes the aberrant expression of normal cellular growth in the host, it is possible to grow along a spectrum of speeds which may theoretically match or exceed host growth, depending on the mutation which initiated it.

Zombie - 30-4-2015 at 17:49

VEGAN!

You filthy tumor eaters can go rot.

Damn dirty APES!