One lens with which to understand the complex phenomenon of cancer is that of developmental biology. Cancer is the inevitable consequence of a breakdown of the communication that enables individual cells to join into computational networks that work towards large-scale, morphogenetic goals instead of more primitive, unicellular objectives. This perspective suggests that cancer may be a physiological disorder, not necessarily due to problems with the genetically-specified protein hardware. One aspect of morphogenetic coordination is bioelectric signaling, and indeed an abnormal bioelectric signature non-invasively reveals the site of incipient tumors in amphibian models. Functionally, a disruption of resting potential states triggers metastatic melanoma phenotypes in embryos with no genetic defects or carcinogen exposure. Conversely, optogenetic or molecular-biological modulation of bioelectric states can override powerful oncogenic mutations and prevent or normalize tumors. The bioelectrically-mediated information flows that harness cells toward body-level anatomical outcomes represent a very attractive and tractable endogenous control system, which is being targeted by emerging approaches to cancer.

了解癌症复杂现象的一种视角是发育生物学。癌症是通讯中断的必然结果，通讯中断使单个细胞能够加入计算网络，以实现大规模的形态发生目标，而不是更原始的单细胞目标。这种观点表明癌症可能是一种生理疾病，不一定是由于基因指定的蛋白质硬件问题。形态发生协调的一个方面是生物电信号，实际上异常的生物电特征非侵入性地揭示了两栖动物模型中初期肿瘤的部位。从功能上讲，静息状态的破坏会在没有遗传缺陷或致癌物暴露的胚胎中触发转移性黑色素瘤表型。反过来，生物电状态的光遗传学或分子生物学调制可以克服强大的致癌突变并预防或使肿瘤正常化。利用细胞实现身体水平解剖结果的生物电介导的信息流代表了一种非常有吸引力且易于处理的内源性控制系统，这是新兴的癌症治疗方法的目标。