Full Description
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.
Contents
Foreword
Randolph Nesse
Chapter 1: A species within a species
Jason A. Somarelli and Norman A. Johnson
Chapter 2: Therapy As a Driver of Evolutionary Selection
Dana Ataya, Joel S. Brown and Robert A. Gatenby
Chapter 3: The Genetic Hitchhiker's Guide to Tumor Evolution
Rohini Janivara and Joseph Lachance
Chapter 4: Multicellularity, phenotypic heterogeneity, and cancer
Christopher Helenek, Jason A. Somarelli, and Gábor Balázsi
Chapter 5: Feedback loops in gene regulatory networks and cell-cell communication networks: drivers of cancer cell plasticity
Yeshwanth Mahesh, Subbalakshmi Ayalur Raghu, Mohit Kumar Jolly
Chapter 6: Polygenic Evolution of Germline Variants in Cancer
Ujani Hazra and Joseph Lachance
Chapter 7: Two-phased cancer evolution: the pattern and scale of genomic and nongenomic landscapes
Andrzej Kasperski and Henry H. Heng
Chapter 8: Evolutionary and ecological perspective on the multiple states of T cell exhaustion
Irina Kareva and Joel S. Brown
Chapter 9: Landscape Genetics for Cancer Biology
Erin L. Landguth and Norman A. Johnson
Chapter 10: Tumor Island Biogeography: Theory and Clinical Applications
Antonia Chroni
Chapter 11: Cancer and the Evolutionary Ecology of Invasions
Joel S. Brown, Sarah A. Amend and Kenneth J. Pienta
Chapter 12: Unifying Theories in Comparative Oncology
Zachary T. Compton
Chapter 13: From Evolutionary Biology to Bedside and Beyond: A View of Comparative Oncology Throughout the Translational Pipeline
Veronica Colmenares, William C. Eward, Laurie A. Graves
Chapter 14: What do we gain from viewing cancer through an eco-evo lens?
Jason A. Somarelli and Norman A. Johnson
