Homeostasis Back and Forth: An Ecoevolutionary Perspective of Cancer.

ABSTRACT: The role of genetic mutations in cancer is indisputable: They are a key source of tumor heterogeneity and drive its evolution to malignancy. But, the success of these new mutant cells relies on their ability to disrupt the homeostasis that characterizes healthy tissues. Mutated clones unable to break free from intrinsic and extrinsic homeostatic controls will fail to establish a tumor. Here, we will discuss, through the lens of mathematical and computational modeling, why an evolutionary view of cancer needs to be complemented by an ecological perspective to understand why cancer cells invade and subsequently transform their environment during progression. Importantly, this ecological perspective needs to account for tissue homeostasis in the organs that tumors invade, because they perturb

SUBMITTER: Basanta D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5580509 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature