Rethinking Cancer: A New Paradigm for the Postgenomics Era (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology)

Leading scientists argue for a new paradigm for cancer research, proposing a complex systems view of cancer supported by empirical evidence. Current consensus in cancer research explains cancer as a disease caused by specific mutations in certain genes. After dramatic advances in genome sequencing, never before have we known so much about the individual cancer cell--and yet never before has it been so unclear what to do with this knowledge. In this volume, leading researchers argue for a new theory framework for understanding and treating cancer. The contributors propose a complex systems view of cancer, presenting conceptual building blocks for a new research paradigm supported by empirical evidence. The contributors first discuss the new research framework in terms of theoretical foundations and then take up the relevance of a systems approach, reviewing such topics as nonlinearity, recurrence after treatment, the cellular attractor concept, network theory, and non-coding DNA--the "dark matter" of our genome. They address the temporality of cancer progression, drawing on evolutionary theory and clinical experience. Finally, they cover the dominant role of the tissue microenvironment in cancer, analyzing topics including altered metabolic pathways, the disease-defining influence on metastasis, and the interconnectedness of different environmental niches across levels of organization. The search for progress and a new theory framework in cancer research / Marta Bertolaso and Bernhard Strauss -- Cancer as a system : hard lessons from physics, and a way forward / Thea J. Newman -- The logic of cancer treatment : Why it is so hard to cure cancer / Sui Huang -- The cell attractor concept as a tool to advance our understanding of cancer / Ingemar Ernberg -- Adaptation of molecular interaction networks in cancer cells / Peter Csermely -- The role of genomic dark-matter in cancer-using AI to shine a light on it : why cancer genes are not the whole story / Kahn Rhrissorrakrai and Laxmi Parida -- Darwinism, not mutationalism, for new cancer therapies / Jacob Scott, David Basanta, and Andriy Marusyk -- Cancer as a reversion to an ancestral phenotype / Kimberly J. Bussey and Paul C. W. Davies -- Time and timing in oncology : What therapy scheduling can teach us about cancer biology / Larry Norton -- Tissue tension modulates metabolism and chromatin organization to promote malignancy / Roger Oria, Dhruv Thakar, and Valerie M. Weaver -- Cancer Metabolism & Therapeutic Perspectives : Exploiting Acidic, Nutritional and Oxidative stresses / Maša Ždralević and Jacques Pouysségur -- Corrupted vascular tumor niches confer aggressiveness and chemoresistance to neoplastic cells / Luca V. Capelli, Liron Yoffe, and Giorgio Inghirami -- Metastasis as a tug of war between cell autonomy and microenvironmental control : Re-addressing unresolved questions in cancer metastasis / Courtney König and Christoph A. Klein -- Niche re-construction to revert or transcend the cancer state / Emmy W. Verschuren Leading scientists argue for a new paradigm for cancer research, proposing a complex systems view of cancer supported by empirical evidence.Current consensus in cancer research explains cancer as a disease caused by specific mutations in certain genes. Thanks to dramatic advances in genome sequencing, never before have we known so much about the individual cancer cell—and yet it is still unclear how to use this knowledge for treatment success. In this volume, leading researchers argue for a new theory framework for understanding and treating cancer. The contributors propose a complex systems view of cancer, presenting conceptual building blocks for a new research paradigm supported by empirical evidence. The contributors first discuss the new research framework in terms of theoretical foundations and then take up the relevance of a systems approach, reviewing such topics as nonlinearity, recurrence after treatment, the cellular attractor concept, network theory, and noncoding DNA—the “dark matter” of our genome. They address the temporality of cancer progression, drawing on evolutionary theory and clinical experience. Finally, they cover the dominant role of the tissue microenvironment in cancer, analyzing topics including altered metabolic pathways, the disease-defining influence on metastasis, and the interconnectedness of different environmental niches across levels of organization. "Steps toward an explanatory paradigm for cancer that integrates its different levels of organization (molecular, genetic, etc.) and also integrates theoretical and experimental biology with oncology"-- Provided by publisher