Related papers: Cancer stem cells display extremely large evolvabi…
There is a widening recognition that cancer cells are products of complex developmental processes. Carcinogenesis and metastasis formation are increasingly described as systems-level, network phenomena. Here we propose that malignant…
Cancer stem cells are controlled by developmental networks that are often topologically indistinguishable from normal, healthy stem cells. The question is why cancer stem cells can be both phenotypically distinct and have morphological…
In this review, we discuss recent advances on the plasticity of cancer stem cells and highlight their relevance to understand the metastatic process and to guide therapeutic interventions. Recent results suggest that the strict hierarchical…
Tumors are defined by their intense proliferation, but sometimes cancer cells turn senescent and stop replicating. In the stochastic cancer model in which all cells are tumorigenic, senescence is seen as the result of random mutations,…
The cellular phenotype is described by a complex network of molecular interactions. Elucidating network properties that distinguish disease from the healthy cellular state is therefore of critical importance for gaining systems-level…
Drug resistance and metastasis - the major complications in cancer - both entail adaptation of cancer cells to stress, whether a drug or a lethal new environment. Intriguingly, these adaptive processes share similar features that cannot be…
Predictive modeling of the evolutionary dynamics of cancer is a challenge issue in computational cancer biology. In this paper, we propose a general mathematical model framework for the evolutionary dynamics of cancer with plasticity and…
We present a general computational theory of cancer and its developmental dynamics. The theory is based on a theory of the architecture and function of developmental control networks which guide the formation of multicellular organisms.…
The unwelcome evolution of malignancy during cancer progression emerges through a selection process in a complex heterogeneous population structure. In the present work, we investigate evolutionary dynamics in a phenotypically heterogeneous…
Cancer stem cells have been shown to be critical to the development of a variety of solid cancers. The precise interplay mechanisms between cancer stem cells and the rest of a tissue are still not elucidated. To shed light on the…
Differentiation is a key cellular process in normal tissue development that is significantly altered in cancer. Although molecular signatures characterising pluripotency and multipotency exist, there is, as yet, no single quantitative mark…
Cancer is a complex disease driven by dynamic regulatory shifts that cannot be fully captured by individual molecular profiling. We employ a data-driven approach to construct a coarse-grained dynamic network model based on hallmark…
An endogenous molecular-cellular network for both normal and abnormal functions is assumed to exist. This endogenous network forms a nonlinear stochastic dynamical system, with many stable attractors in its functional landscape. Normal or…
The conventional cancer stem cell (CSC) theory indicates a hierarchy of CSCs and non-stem cancer cells (NSCCs), that is, CSCs can differentiate into NSCCs but not vice versa. However, an alternative paradigm of CSC theory with reversible…
One of the key characteristics of cancer cells is an increased phenotypic plasticity, driven by underlying genetic and epigenetic perturbations. However, at a systems-level it is unclear how these perturbations give rise to the observed…
In this review we summarize our recent efforts in trying to understand the role of heterogeneity in cancer progression by using neural networks to characterise different aspects of the mapping from a cancer cells genotype and environment to…
Genomic alterations lead to cancer complexity and form a major hurdle for a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying oncogenesis. In this review, we describe the recent advances in studying cancer-associated genes…
Recurrence and metastasis have been regarded as two of the greatest obstacles for curing cancer. Cancer stem cell (CSC) have been found. They contribute to cancer development with the distinct feature of recurrence and resistance to the…
Mounting evidence underscores the prevalent hierarchical organization of cancer tissues. At the foundation of this hierarchy reside cancer stem cells, a subset of cells endowed with the pivotal role of engendering the entire cancer tissue…
A tumor can be thought of as an ecosystem, which critically means that we cannot just consider it as a collection of mutated cells but more as a complex system of many interacting cellular and microenvironmental elements. At its simplest, a…