Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vendramin, Roberto
• Litchfield, Kevin
• Swanton, Charles

Titel

Cancer evolution: Darwin and beyond

Ist Teil von

• The EMBO journal, 2021-09, Vol.40 (18), p.e108389-n/a

Ort / Verlag

England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library Journals Frontfile Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Clinical and laboratory studies over recent decades have established branched evolution as a feature of cancer. However, while grounded in somatic selection, several lines of evidence suggest a Darwinian model alone is insufficient to fully explain cancer evolution. First, the role of macroevolutionary events in tumour initiation and progression contradicts Darwin's central thesis of gradualism. Whole‐genome doubling, chromosomal chromoplexy and chromothripsis represent examples of single catastrophic events which can drive tumour evolution. Second, neutral evolution can play a role in some tumours, indicating that selection is not always driving evolution. Third, increasing appreciation of the role of the ageing soma has led to recent generalised theories of age‐dependent carcinogenesis. Here, we review these concepts and others, which collectively argue for a model of cancer evolution which extends beyond Darwin. We also highlight clinical opportunities which can be grasped through targeting cancer vulnerabilities arising from non‐Darwinian patterns of evolution. Evolutionary concepts explaining cancer progression, the selective pressures acting on tumours, and their therapeutic implications are discussed in this comprehensive review.