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Related Concept Videos

What is Cancer?02:12

What is Cancer?

Cells and tissues must meticulously coordinate their activities for the normal functioning of the human body. Therefore, they exhibit socially responsible behavior - resting, growing, dividing, differentiating, or dying - for the organism’s benefit. Cancer arises when cells divide uncontrollably and invade other tissues or organs.
Although people have known about cancer for centuries, it was only in 1761 that Giovanni Morgagni of Padua performed a detailed autopsy of patients who died from...
What is Cancer?02:12

What is Cancer?

Cells and tissues must meticulously coordinate their activities for the normal functioning of the human body. Therefore, they exhibit socially responsible behavior - resting, growing, dividing, differentiating, or dying - for the organism’s benefit. Cancer arises when cells divide uncontrollably and invade other tissues or organs.
Although people have known about cancer for centuries, it was only in 1761 that Giovanni Morgagni of Padua performed a detailed autopsy of patients who died from...
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells02:53

Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells accumulate genetic changes at an abnormally rapid rate due to the defects in the DNA repair mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, such genetic instability is advantageous for cancer development. Mutant cell lines accumulate a series of beneficial mutations that contribute to their progression into cancer.
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells02:53

Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells accumulate genetic changes at an abnormally rapid rate due to the defects in the DNA repair mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, such genetic instability is advantageous for cancer development. Mutant cell lines accumulate a series of beneficial mutations that contribute to their progression into cancer.
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
Cancer02:18

Cancer

Cancers arise due to mutations in genes involved in the regulation of cell division, which leads to unrestricted cell proliferation. Modern science and medicine have made great strides in the understanding and treatment of cancer, including eradicating cancer in some patients. However, there is still no cure for cancer. This is largely due to the fact that cancer is a large group of many diseases.
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell02:21

Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell

Cancer arises from mutations in the critical genes that allow healthy cells to escape cell cycle regulation and acquire the ability to proliferate indefinitely. Though originating from a single mutation event in one of the originator cells, cancer progresses when the mutant cell lines continue to gain more and more mutations, and finally, become malignant. For example, chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) develops initially as a non-lethal increase in white blood cells, which progressively...

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Flexible Organic Electronic Devices for Pulsed Electric Field Therapy of Glioblastoma
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Cancer: A bioelectric disease?

Celine Desoyer1, Roko Šupe1, Sahar Ghorbanpour1

  • 1Institute of Health Care Engineering with European Testing Center of Medical Devices, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.

Clinical and Translational Medicine
|May 21, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cancer cells exhibit altered electrical properties, specifically depolarized membrane potential (Vm), a hallmark of malignancy. This research proposes a framework to utilize Vm as a key control variable in precision oncology.

Keywords:
bioelectric biomarkersbioelectric signallingcancer bioelectricityion channels in cancermembrane potential (Vm)precision oncologytumour progression and stemnesstumour‐treating fields

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Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Bioelectricity
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Cancer progression involves complex signaling networks, with genetic and epigenetic factors well-studied.
  • Emerging evidence highlights bioelectric signaling, particularly transmembrane potential (Vm), as a crucial regulatory layer in tumor biology.
  • Malignant cells consistently show depolarized Vm, correlating with proliferation, stemness, invasion, and therapy resistance, suggesting it as a conserved hallmark.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the extent to which Vm functions as an integrative regulatory dimension of malignancy.
  • To address the lack of a quantitative, translationally actionable framework for membrane potential in cancer.
  • To establish Vm as a cross-tumour, systems-level state variable.

Main Methods:

  • Summarized approximately 15 years of experimental and translational research on Vm in cancer.
  • Defined Vm as a measurable, dynamically tuneable state variable integrating regulatory inputs and predicting cellular behavior.
  • Identified limitations in current evidence, including quantitative comparability, mechanistic integration, tumor heterogeneity resolution, and clinical translation standardization.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that Vm acts as an integrative regulatory dimension of malignancy.
  • Highlighted Vm's role as a conserved bioelectric hallmark across diverse experimental systems.
  • Identified critical limitations hindering the translational application of Vm in cancer research.

Conclusions:

  • Introduced a quantitative framework and translational roadmap for bioelectric state control in precision oncology.
  • Established membrane potential (Vm) as a supplementary biomarker, pharmacodynamic indicator, and actionable control variable.
  • Advocated for incorporating Vm into state-guided therapeutic interventions for precision oncology.