Modeling tumors as complex ecosystems.

iScience

ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, UPF-PRBB, Dr. Aiguader 80, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.

Published: September 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Many cancers are difficult to treat because they consist of diverse populations of cells within a single tumor, which leads to intratumor heterogeneity.
  • Current mathematical models often fail to capture this diversity and its impact on cancer treatment outcomes.
  • The generalized Lotka-Volterra model (GLV) is proposed as a new way to model the ecological interactions within tumors, potentially improving our understanding of cancer growth, immune responses, and metastasis, while outlining areas for future research.

Article Abstract

Many cancers resist therapeutic intervention. This is fundamentally related to intratumor heterogeneity: multiple cell populations, each with different phenotypic signatures, coexist within a tumor and its metastases. Like species in an ecosystem, cancer populations are intertwined in a complex network of ecological interactions. Most mathematical models of tumor ecology, however, cannot account for such phenotypic diversity or predict its consequences. Here, we propose that the generalized Lotka-Volterra model (GLV), a standard tool to describe species-rich ecological communities, provides a suitable framework to model the ecology of heterogeneous tumors. We develop a GLV model of tumor growth and discuss how its emerging properties provide a new understanding of the disease. We discuss potential extensions of the model and their application to phenotypic plasticity, cancer-immune interactions, and metastatic growth. Our work outlines a set of questions and a road map for further research in cancer ecology.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11402243PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110699DOI Listing

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