Carcinogenesis, Genetic Instability and Genomic Entropy: Insight Derived from Malignant Brain Tumor Age Specific Mortality Rate Dynamics

Aging-related carcinogenesis has been attributed to inherent genetic instability, which manifests in a multistep fashion by activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Malignant brain tumor cells display multiple-characteristic acquired genetic abnormalities in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Age-specific malignant brain tumor mortality rates in the United States from 1962 to 1988 were interpreted by longitudinal Gompertzian analysis. Utilizing a thermodynamic perspective of the Strehler-Mildvan modification of the Gompertz relationship between mortality and aging, a measure of the rate of increase in informational entropy for those genetic factors involved in the carcinogenesis of malignant brain tumor was determined. Aging-related carcinogenesis can be viewed as a natural consequence of increasing informational entropy of the genome.