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Updated: Dec 23, 2025
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Monitoring the Cancer-Immunity Cycle and Exploring Tumor Microenvironment Dynamics
Published on: June 7, 2024
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Cancer Ecology and Evolution: Positive interactions and system vulnerability.
Frederick R Adler1,2, Deborah M Gordon3
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah, 257 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.
Current Opinion in Systems Biology
|April 23, 2020
Summary
Cancer
Area of Science:
- Cancer biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Ecology
Background:
- Cancer initiation and spread share parallels with ecological and evolutionary processes.
- Understanding these parallels offers new therapeutic strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review parallels and contrasts between cancer and ecological/evolutionary systems.
- To propose a novel mathematical modeling framework for cancer emergence.
- To highlight the role of positive interactions in cancer control.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of cancer with ecological concepts (invasive vs. native species, crops).
- Exploration of differences between ecological and homeostatic control.
- Development of a mathematical model tracking cell lineage emergence and control breakdown.
Main Results:
- Cancers are proposed to be more akin to escaped native species or crops than invasive species.
- Ecological and homeostatic control mechanisms differ fundamentally.
- Positive interactions play a crucial role in control processes.
Conclusions:
- Future cancer therapies should consider the network of cellular interactions and evolutionary logic.
- Focusing on individual 'renegade' cells is insufficient for effective treatment.
- Targeting the evolutionary vulnerabilities within cellular interactions is key.
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