Exploiting ecological principles to better understand cancer progression and treatment

TL;DR

This paper explores how ecological principles can provide new insights into cancer progression and treatment by viewing tumors as complex ecosystems, supported by mathematical and computational models.

Contribution

It introduces an ecological perspective to cancer, emphasizing the importance of ecosystem-like interactions and applying models to better understand and treat the disease.

Findings

Cancer viewed as disrupted ecosystems in organs

Ecological models offer new insights into tumor dynamics

Potential for improved treatment strategies based on ecosystem understanding

Abstract

A small but growing number of people are finding interesting parallels between ecosystems as studied by ecologists (think of a Savanna or the Amazon rain forest or a Coral reef) and tumours1-3. The idea of viewing cancer from an ecological perspective has many implications but fundamentally, it means that we should not see cancer just as a group of mutated cells. A more useful definition of cancer is to consider it a disruption in the complex balance of many interacting cellular and microenvironmental elements in a specific organ. This perspective means that organs undergoing carcinogenesis should be seen as sophisticated ecosystems in homeostasis that cancer cells can disrupt. It also makes cancer seem even more complex but may ultimately provides isights that make it more treatable. Here we discuss how ecological principles can be used to better understand cancer progression and treatment, using several mathematical and computational models to illustrate our argument.