Neuroscience and oncology. A unified view

Evidence has been produced that the neoplastic event is the result of a multistep multifactorial process involving virtually every functional system within the organism. Traditional concepts such as cellular autonomy, uncontrolled growth and monoclonality of cancer are revised in the light of current data. Microenvironmental stimuli appear to affect relevant cancer cell functions, including locomotion, differentiation and gene expression. The complex interconnection between biological functions and messages, relevant among which are nervous inputs, requires the identification of new physiological models if the neoplastic process is to be understood.