Share, but unequally: a plausible mechanism for emergence and maintenance of intratumour heterogeneity.

ABSTRACT: Intratumour heterogeneity (ITH), referring to the coexistence of different cell subpopulations in a single tumour, has been a major puzzle in cancer research for almost half a century. The lack of understanding of the underlying mechanism of ITH hinders progress in developing effective therapies for cancers. Based on the findings in a recent quantitative experiment on pancreatic cancer, we developed a general evolutionary model for one type of cancer, accounting for interactions between different cell populations through paracrine or juxtacrine factors. We show that the emergence of a stable heterogeneous state in a tumour requires an unequal allocation of paracrine growth factors (public goods) between cells that produce them and those that merely consume them. Our model provides a quanti

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6364648 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature