Cancer attractors: a systems view of tumors from a gene network dynamics and developmental perspective.

ABSTRACT: Cell lineage commitment and differentiation are governed by a complex gene regulatory network. Disruption of these processes by inappropriate regulatory signals and by mutational rewiring of the network can lead to tumorigenesis. Cancer cells often exhibit immature or embryonic traits and dysregulated developmental genes can act as oncogenes. However, the prevailing paradigm of somatic evolution and multi-step tumorigenesis, while useful in many instances, offers no logically coherent reason for why oncogenesis recapitulates ontogenesis. The formal concept of "cancer attractors", derived from an integrative, complex systems approach to gene regulatory network may provide a natural explanation. Here we present the theory of attractors in gene network dynamics and review the concept of cell

SUBMITTER: Huang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2754594 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature