Cancer through the Lens of Evolution and Ecology

Jason A. Somarelli,Norman A. Johnson

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781040027684
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Oncología

Cancer cells exist in an ever-changing "ecology" and are subject to evolutionary pressures just like any species in nature. This edited book explores the following themes: 1) how the dynamics of mutation, epigenetics, and gene expression noise are sources of genetic diversity; 2) how scarce resources influence cancer therapy resistance; 3) how predator-prey dynamics are mirrored in immune-cancer cross-talk; 4) how cancer cells parallel niche construction theory; 5) how changing fitness landscapes enable cancer growth; and 6) how cancer cells interact within the body. The book is a resource for understanding cancer as a disease of multicellularity grounded in evolutionary principles. By using this knowledge, researchers are starting to exploit these behaviors for treatment paradigms.

Key Features

• Bridges disciplines exemplifying the ways disparate fields create new perspectives when integrated.
• Offers insights from leading scholars in cancer biology, ecology and evolutionary biology.
• Provides a timely recognition by oncologists that evolutionary paradigms are crucial for breakthroughs in cancer treatment.
• Integrates basic and applied sciences of oncology and evolutionary biology.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editors
• List of Contributors
• Chapter 1 A Species within a Species
• Chapter 2 Therapy as a Driver of Evolutionary Selection
• Chapter 3 The Genetic Hitchhiker’s Guide to Tumor Evolution
• Chapter 4 Multicellularity, Phenotypic Heterogeneity, and Cancer
• Chapter 5 Feedback Loops in Gene Regulatory Networks and Cell-Cell Communication Networks: Drivers of Cancer Cell Plasticity
• Chapter 6 Polygenic Evolution of Germline Variants in Cancer
• Chapter 7 Two-Phased Cancer Evolution: The Pattern and Scale of Genomic and Non-Genomic Landscapes
• Chapter 8 Evolutionary and Ecological Perspective on the Multiple States of T Cell Exhaustion
• Chapter 9 Landscape Genetics for Cancer Biology
• Chapter 10 Tumor Island Biogeography: Theory and Clinical Applications
• Chapter 11 Cancer and the Evolutionary Ecology of Invasions
• Chapter 12 Unifying Theories in Comparative Oncology
• Chapter 13 From Evolutionary Biology to Bedside and Beyond: A View of Comparative Oncology throughout the Translational Pipeline
• Chapter 14 What Do We Gain from Viewing Cancer through an Eco-Evo Lens?
• Index