One hundred years of Drosophila cancer research: no longer in solitude

Dis Model Mech. 2019 Apr 1;12(4):dmm039032. doi: 10.1242/dmm.039032.

Abstract

When Mary Stark first described the presence of tumours in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster in 1918, would she ever have imagined that flies would become an invaluable organism for modelling and understanding oncogenesis? And if so, would she have expected it to take 100 years for this model to be fully accredited? This Special Article summarises the efforts and achievements of Drosophilists to establish the fly as a valid model in cancer research through different scientific periods.

Keywords: Cancer; Drosophila; Mary Stark; Metastasis.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomedical Research / history*
  • Drosophila melanogaster / physiology*
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
  • Genes, Tumor Suppressor
  • History, 20th Century
  • History, 21st Century
  • Neoplasms / genetics
  • Neoplasms / history*
  • Oncogenes