Dataset Information

Identifying key questions in the ecology and evolution of cancer.

ABSTRACT: The application of evolutionary and ecological principles to cancer prevention and treatment, as well as recognizing cancer as a selection force in nature, has gained impetus over the last 50 years. Following the initial theoretical approaches that combined knowledge from interdisciplinary fields, it became clear that using the eco-evolutionary framework is of key importance to understand cancer. We are now at a pivotal point where accumulating evidence starts to steer the future directions of the discipline and allows us to underpin the key challenges that remain to be addressed. Here, we aim to assess current advancements in the field and to suggest future directions for research. First, we summarize cancer research areas that, so far, have assimilated ecological and evolutionary principles into their approaches and illustrate their key importance. Then, we assembled 33 experts and identified 84 key questions, organized around nine major themes, to pave the foundations for research to come. We highlight the urgent need for broadening the portfolio of research directions to stimulate novel approaches at the interface of oncology and ecological and evolutionary sciences. We conclude that progressive and efficient cross-disciplinary collaborations that draw on the expertise of the fields of ecology, evolution and cancer are essential in order to efficiently address current and future questions about cancer.

SUBMITTER: Dujon AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8061275 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Identifying key questions in the ecology and evolution of cancer.

Dujon Antoine M AM Aktipis Athena A Alix-Panabières Catherine C Amend Sarah R SR Boddy Amy M AM Brown Joel S JS Capp Jean-Pascal JP DeGregori James J Ewald Paul P Gatenby Robert R Gerlinger Marco M Giraudeau Mathieu M Hamede Rodrigo K RK Hansen Elsa E Kareva Irina I Maley Carlo C CC Marusyk Andriy A McGranahan Nicholas N Metzger Michael J MJ Nedelcu Aurora M AM Noble Robert R Nunney Leonard L Pienta Kenneth J KJ Polyak Kornelia K Pujol Pascal P Read Andrew F AF Roche Benjamin B Sebens Susanne S Solary Eric E Staňková Kateřina K Swain Ewald Holly H Thomas Frédéric F Ujvari Beata B

Evolutionary applications 20210208 4

The application of evolutionary and ecological principles to cancer prevention and treatment, as well as recognizing cancer as a selection force in nature, has gained impetus over the last 50 years. Following the initial theoretical approaches that combined knowledge from interdisciplinary fields, it became clear that using the eco-evolutionary framework is of key importance to understand cancer. We are now at a pivotal point where accumulating evidence starts to steer the future directions of t ...[more]

PMID: 33897809

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Project description:Cancer therapy, even when highly targeted, typically fails because of the remarkable capacity of malignant cells to evolve effective adaptations. These evolutionary dynamics are both a cause and a consequence of cancer system heterogeneity at many scales, ranging from genetic properties of individual cells to large-scale imaging features. Tumors of the same organ and cell type can have remarkably diverse appearances in different patients. Furthermore, even within a single tumor, marked variations in imaging features, such as necrosis or contrast enhancement, are common. Similar spatial variations recently have been reported in genetic profiles. Radiologic heterogeneity within tumors is usually governed by variations in blood flow, whereas genetic heterogeneity is typically ascribed to random mutations. However, evolution within tumors, as in all living systems, is subject to Darwinian principles; thus, it is governed by predictable and reproducible interactions between environmental selection forces and cell phenotype (not genotype). This link between regional variations in environmental properties and cellular adaptive strategies may permit clinical imaging to be used to assess and monitor intratumoral evolution in individual patients. This approach is enabled by new methods that extract, report, and analyze quantitative, reproducible, and mineable clinical imaging data. However, most current quantitative metrics lack spatialness, expressing quantitative radiologic features as a single value for a region of interest encompassing the whole tumor. In contrast, spatially explicit image analysis recognizes that tumors are heterogeneous but not well mixed and defines regionally distinct habitats, some of which appear to harbor tumor populations that are more aggressive and less treatable than others. By identifying regional variations in key environmental selection forces and evidence of cellular adaptation, clinical imaging can enable us to define intratumoral Darwinian dynamics before and during therapy. Advances in image analysis will place clinical imaging in an increasingly central role in the development of evolution-based patient-specific cancer therapy.

Dataset Information

Identifying key questions in the ecology and evolution of cancer.

Publications

Identifying key questions in the ecology and evolution of cancer.

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