Jerwen Kiev Del Cano

To deal with cancer is to decipher one of Mother Nature’s most perplexing puzzles. It is complex and critical to the extremes. But like any other disease, cancer is curable, and with the help of advancing genetic engineering, the odds of getting the right answer continue to increase.


In South Korea, a team of biology and brain engineering PhD candidates at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has uncovered a revolutionary method on how to revert cancerous colon cells to their normal state without the risk of killing the cells in the process.

Led by Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho, these students raised the odds for cancer treatment by highlighting in their study the introduction of a model they have developed, entitled ‘single-cell Boolean network inference and control’ (BENEIN). 

Introducing BENEIN to cancer reversion

The idea of cancer reversion has long been an ongoing dialogue in the field of oncology. While the outcome is promising, the process may take a long time to be fully established due to the intricate nature of cancer cells themselves. This was the gap then, and it was not impossible.

Previous documented studies have already suggested methods that involve Boolean network models in differentiating cancer cells. These models manage to construct gene networks that would help in analyzing the nonlinear nature of cancer. However, they fall short on scalability, time intervals, and the thorough definition of much more needed data for the equation.

Hence, the research team procured the foundational Boolean network models and developed their computational framework that would ideally suffice the needs of the gap—BENEIN.

Is it worth promising?

Having said the complexity of oncocytes, BENEIN reconstructs Boolean models of gene networks, but this time, it integrates what is needed to the equation—master regulators.

The master regulators, consisting of MYB, HDAC2, and FOXA2, are the variables pivotal for testing. In silico analysis and comparative analysis were used to examine the following targets, and experiments were done both in vitro and in vivo to further validate the prospect of cancer reversion. 

It was found via in silico analysis that hampering the master regulators may potentially lead to cancer reversion. Likewise, the simultaneous knockdown of the master regulators restricts the propagation of the cancer cells, reverting them to their non-cancerous state. 

Valuable outgrowths

BENEIN was underlined for its distinct advantages over previous studies, including the ability to analyze specific regions of gene transcripts, make more accurate prognoses about gene regulation, reconstruct Boolean models unbiasedly, and easily identify key master regulators.

Additionally, while many may have acknowledged surgeries, chemotherapies, and radiation to be popular for radical cancer treatments, for some patients, its risks and long-term effects may potentially incur.

On the contrary, this novel methodology for cancer reversion, which demonstrates a low cell mortality rate, potentially bypasses such long-term negative side effects of treatment. 

For when one fights against the odds where Mother Nature is a battlefield, playing it with science may help you search for answers to succeed.

This research, entitled “Control of Cellular Differentiation Trajectories for Cancer Reversion,” was published in the online edition of the international journal Advanced Science by Wiley on December 11.