Most definitions of cancer I’ve seen imply invasion into other tissues in addition to dysregulated growth and division, so according to those, no.
But what you’re suggesting in the context of a unicellular organism is the formation of aggregates. Aggregation is an important process in biological systems now, but it was also a milestone in the evolution from unicellular to multicellular organisms.
And it’s important (and amazing!) to realize that multicellularity wasn’t a one off, it’s happened dozens of times independently.
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Most definitions of cancer I’ve seen imply invasion into other tissues in addition to dysregulated growth and division, so according to those, no.
But what you’re suggesting in the context of a unicellular organism is the formation of aggregates. Aggregation is an important process in biological systems now, but it was also a milestone in the evolution from unicellular to multicellular organisms.
And it’s important (and amazing!) to realize that multicellularity wasn’t a one off, it’s happened dozens of times independently.