Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2025

Building Up a High-throughput Screening Platform to Assess the Heterogeneity of HER2 Gene Amplification in Breast Cancers
Published on: December 5, 2017
From Chaos to Opportunity: Decoding Cancer Heterogeneity for Enhanced Treatment Strategies
Alessandro Ottaiano1, Monica Ianniello2, Mariachiara Santorsola1
1Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Napoli, IRCCS "G. Pascale", Via M. Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Abstract:
Cancer manifests as a multifaceted disease, characterized by aberrant cellular proliferation, survival, migration, and invasion. Tumors exhibit variances across diverse dimensions, encompassing genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptional realms. This heterogeneity poses significant challenges in prognosis and treatment, affording tumors advantages through an increased propensity to accumulate mutations linked to immune system evasion and drug resistance. In this review, we offer insights into tumor heterogeneity as a crucial characteristic of cancer, exploring the difficulties associated with measuring and quantifying such heterogeneity from clinical and biological perspectives. By emphasizing the critical nature of understanding tumor heterogeneity, this work contributes to raising awareness about the importance of developing effective cancer therapies that target this distinct and elusive trait of cancer.
Related Concept Videos
Combination Therapies and Personalized Medicine
The combination of the drug acetazolamide and sulforaphane is a good example of combination therapy to treat cancer. The cells in the interior of a large tumor often die due to the hypoxic and...
Treatment Resistant Cancers
Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
Cancer
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...

