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Published online 27 August 2008 | Nature 454, 1046-1048 (2008) | doi:10.1038/4541046a

News Feature

Natural selection: The evolution of cancer

Cancer cells vary; they compete; the fittest survive. Patrick Goymer reports on how evolutionary biology can be applied to cancer — and what good it might do.

Patrick Goymer

The oncology clinic isn't a field site where one might expect to find an evolutionary biologist. But within the complex ecosystem that is the human body, tumours grow, mutate and face diverse selective pressures as they change and react to their environment.

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  • Dear Dr. P. Goymer: I certainly agree that to understand the cancer genesis and progression we need evolutionary biologists. Nevertheless, it appears that the evolutionary dynamics exposed in your article is incomplete. Another important side which roots deeply in RA Fisher?s fundamental theorem of natural selection and S Wright?s adaptive landscape, two central concepts in evolutionary dynamics, has been neglected by your article and the papers cited there. In my opinion those concepts encompass those of geno and pheno mapping approach, and have been exploiting to understand cancer dynamics. Here I would like to call your and your readers? attention to such work: 1) From Teratocarcinomas to Embryonic Stem Cells, P.W. Andrews, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London B357 405-417 (2002) 2) Laws of Darwinian Evolutionary Theory, P. Ao, Physics of Life Reviews 2 (2005) 117-156. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2005.03.002 3) Orders of Magnitude Change in Phenotype Rate Caused by Mutations. P. Ao, Cellular Oncology (2007) 29: 67-69. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0704/0704.0429v1.pdf ; 4) Cancer as Robust Intrinsic State of Endogenous Molecular-Cellular Network Shaped by Evolution. P. Ao, D. Galas, L. Hood, X.-M. Zhu, Medical Hypotheses 70 (2008) 678?684. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2007.03.043 http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0709/0709.0552.pdf One very distinct feature from above study is that your linear branching figures should be replaced by a network-like structure. This would have a totally different implication for cancer biology. I will be pleased to have constructive discussions with you and your readers. Yours Ping Ao aoping@u.washington.edu

    • 01 Sep, 2008
    • Posted by: P Ao