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cmos6667
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Can we eat tumors? (yes, tumors as in cancer)
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]
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blogfast25
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Tumor cells are broken down in the digestive system in the same way as other cells.
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cmos6667
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so that's a yes then? WOOHOO NOBEL PRIZE HERE I COME!!! 
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Loptr
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Are you thinking about growing tumors as food?
[Edited on 29-4-2015 by Loptr]
[Edited on 29-4-2015 by Loptr]
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cmos6667
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yes, with pulverized corn
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aga
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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 !
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cmos6667
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right, the ethics thing again, almost forgot about the palm oil argument 
[Edited on 29-4-2015 by cmos6667]
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jock88
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There is a restaurant in iceland that specializes in serving tumours. (warts an all)
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Loptr
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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.
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WGTR
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aga
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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 !
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DraconicAcid
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That sounds like a joke about their clientele.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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Zombie
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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
They tried to have me "put to sleep" so I came back to return the favor.
Zom.
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crazyboy
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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.
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Bert
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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]
Rapopart’s Rules for critical commentary:
1. Attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your target says: “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it
that way.”
2. List any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. Mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
Anatol Rapoport was a Russian-born American mathematical psychologist (1911-2007).
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Zombie
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Oh my goodness. I was RIGHT!
That's exactly how us Zombies got started. 7-11 Slurpies anyone?
They tried to have me "put to sleep" so I came back to return the favor.
Zom.
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Mailinmypocket
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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.
Note to self: Tare the damned flask.
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Varmint
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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.
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cmos6667
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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 
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Chemosynthesis
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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.
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DraconicAcid
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If you start selling tumour burgers, your competition will have Ahnold as a spokesperson..."It's naht a tooomour!"
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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AJKOER
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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]
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jock88
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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.
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aga
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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.
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Chemosynthesis
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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.
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