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Ecology and Evolution of Cancer

Author: Beata Ujvari

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2017-02-08

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0128043806

Ecology and Evolution of Cancer is a timely work outlining ideas that not only represent a substantial and original contribution to the fields of evolution, ecology, and cancer, but also goes beyond by connecting the interfaces of these disciplines. This work engages the expertise of a multidisciplinary research team to collate and review the latest knowledge and developments in this exciting research field. The evolutionary perspective of cancer has gained significant international recognition and interest, which is fully understandable given that somatic cellular selection and evolution are elegant explanations for carcinogenesis. Cancer is now generally accepted to be an evolutionary and ecological process with complex interactions between tumor cells and their environment sharing many similarities with organismal evolution. As a critical contribution to this field of research the book is important and relevant for the applications of evolutionary biology to understand the origin of cancers, to control neoplastic progression, and to prevent therapeutic failures. Covers all aspects of the evolution of cancer, appealing to researchers seeking to understand its origins and effects of treatments on its progression, as well as to lecturers in evolutionary medicine Functions as both an introduction to cancer and evolution and a review of the current research on this burgeoning, exciting field, presented by an international group of leading editors and contributors Improves understanding of the origin and the evolution of cancer, aiding efforts to determine how this disease interferes with biotic interactions that govern ecosystems Highlights research that intends to apply evolutionary principles to help predict emergence and metastatic progression with the aim of improving therapies

Dynamics of Cancer

Author: Steven A. Frank

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0691186863

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The onset of cancer presents one of the most fundamental problems in modern biology. In Dynamics of Cancer, Steven Frank produces the first comprehensive analysis of how particular genetic and environmental causes influence the age of onset. The book provides a unique conceptual and historical framework for understanding the causes of cancer and other diseases that increase with age. Using a novel quantitative framework of reliability and multistage breakdown, Frank unifies molecular, demographic, and evolutionary levels of analysis. He interprets a wide variety of observations on the age of cancer onset, the genetic and environmental causes of disease, and the organization of tissues with regard to stem cell biology and somatic mutation. Frank uses new quantitative methods to tackle some of the classic problems in cancer biology and aging: how the rate of increase in the incidence of lung cancer declines after individuals quit smoking, the distinction between the dosage of a chemical carcinogen and the time of exposure, and the role of inherited genetic variation in familial patterns of cancer. This is the only book that presents a full analysis of the age of cancer onset. It is a superb teaching tool and a rich source of ideas for new and experienced researchers. For cancer biologists, population geneticists, evolutionary biologists, and demographers interested in aging, this book provides new insight into disease progression, the inheritance of predisposition to disease, and the evolutionary processes that have shaped organismal design.

Cancer

Author: Melvyn F. Greaves

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9780192628343

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Every day, 1500 Americans die of cancer, and yet for most of us this deadly disease remains mysterious. Why is it so common? Why are there so many different causes? Why does treatment so often fail? What, ultimately, is cancer? In this fascinating new book, a leading cancer researcher offers general readers clear and convincing answers to these and many other questions. Mel Greaves places cancer in its evolutionary context, arguing that we can best answer the big questions about cancer by looking through a Darwinian lens. Drawing on both ancient and more modern evolutionary legacies, he shows how human development has changed the rules of evolutionary games, trapping us in a nature-nurture mismatch. Compelling examples, from the King of Naples intestinal tumor in the 15th century, through the epidemic of scrotal skin cancer in 18th-century chimney sweeps, to the current surge of cases of prostate cancer illustrate his thesis. He also shows why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless when trying to explain this complex and elusive disease. And finally, he looks at the implications for research, prevention, and treatment of cancer that an evolutionary perspective provides. Drawing on the most recent research, this is the first book to put cancer in its evolutionary framework. At a time when Darwinian perspectives on everything from language acquisition to economics are providing new breakthroughs in understanding, medicine seems to have much to gain from the insights provided by evolutionary biology. Written in an exceptionally lucid and entertaining style, this book will be of broad interest to all those who wish to know more about this dread disease.

Rebel Cell

Author: Kat Arney

Publisher: BenBella Books

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1950665518

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Why do we get cancer? Is it our modern diets and unhealthy habits? Chemicals in the environment? An unwelcome genetic inheritance? Or is it just bad luck? The answer is all of these and none of them. We get cancer because we can't avoid it—it's a bug in the system of life itself. Cancer exists in nearly every animal and has afflicted humans as long as our species has walked the earth. In Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal, Kat Arney reveals the secrets of our most formidable medical enemy, most notably the fact that it isn't so much a foreign invader as a double agent: cancer is hardwired into the fundamental processes of life. New evidence shows that this disease is the result of the same evolutionary changes that allowed us to thrive. Evolution helped us outsmart our environment, and it helps cancer outsmart its environment as well—alas, that environment is us. Explaining why "everything we know about cancer is wrong," Arney, a geneticist and award-winning science writer, guides readers with her trademark wit and clarity through the latest research into the cellular mavericks that rebel against the rigid biological "society" of the body and make a leap towards anarchy. We need to be a lot smarter to defeat such a wily foe—smarter even than Darwin himself. In this new world, where we know that every cancer is unique and can evolve its way out of trouble, the old models of treatment have reached their limits. But we are starting to decipher cancer's secret evolutionary playbook, mapping the landscapes in which these rogue cells survive, thrive, or die, and using this knowledge to predict and confound cancer's next move. Rebel Cell is a story about life and death, hope and hubris, nature and nurture. It's about a new way of thinking about what this disease really is and the role it plays in human life. Above all, it's a story about where cancer came from, where it's going, and how we can stop it.

The Cheating Cell

Author: Athena Aktipis

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0691163847

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A fundamental and groundbreaking reassessment of how we view and manage cancer When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary relationship, and shows that by understanding cancer’s evolutionary origins, researchers can come up with more effective, revolutionary treatments. Athena Aktipis goes back billions of years to explore when unicellular forms became multicellular organisms. Within these bodies of cooperating cells, cheating ones arose, overusing resources and replicating out of control, giving rise to cancer. Aktipis illustrates how evolution has paved the way for cancer’s ubiquity, and why it will exist as long as multicellular life does. Even so, she argues, this doesn’t mean we should give up on treating cancer—in fact, evolutionary approaches offer new and promising options for the disease’s prevention and treatments that aim at long-term management rather than simple eradication. Looking across species—from sponges and cacti to dogs and elephants—we are discovering new mechanisms of tumor suppression and the many ways that multicellular life-forms have evolved to keep cancer under control. By accepting that cancer is a part of our biological past, present, and future—and that we cannot win a war against evolution—treatments can become smarter, more strategic, and more humane. Unifying the latest research from biology, ecology, medicine, and social science, The Cheating Cell challenges us to rethink cancer’s fundamental nature and our relationship to it.

Cancer Evolution

Author: Charles Swanton

Publisher: Perspectives Cshl

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9781621821434

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Tumor progression is driven by mutations that confer growth advantages to different subpopulations of cancer cells. As a tumor grows, these subpopulations expand, accumulate new mutations, and are subjected to selective pressures from the environment, including anticancer interventions. This process, termed clonal evolution, can lead to the emergence of therapy-resistant tumors and poses a major challenge for cancer eradication efforts. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine examines cancer progression as an evolutionary process and explores how this way of looking at cancer may lead to more effective strategies for managing and treating it. The contributors review efforts to characterize the subclonal architecture and dynamics of tumors, understand the roles of chromosomal instability, driver mutations, and mutation order, and determine how cancer cells respond to selective pressures imposed by anticancer agents, immune cells, and other components of the tumor microenvironment. They compare cancer evolution to organismal evolution and describe how ecological theories and mathematical models are being used to understand the complex dynamics between a tumor and its microenvironment during cancer progression. The authors also discuss improved methods to monitor tumor evolution (e.g., liquid biopsies) and the development of more effective strategies for managing and treating cancers (e.g., immunotherapies). This volume will therefore serve as a vital reference for all cancer biologists as well as anyone seeking to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.

Molecular Biology of The Cell

Author: Bruce Alberts

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780815332183

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Rethinking Cancer

Author: Bernhard Strauss

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2021-04-27

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0262045214

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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.

Gastric Cancer: the 25-year R-Evolution

Author: Giovanni de Manzoni

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-15

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 3030731588

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Twenty-five years ago, a monograph on gastric cancer was published by the Italian Society of Surgery: that book is recognized as a milestone in the management of these tumors in Italy. Oncological and surgical knowledge in the field of gastric cancer have changed dramatically over the last 25 years. The aim of this book is to offer an essential update on current diagnostic approaches and optimal treatment strategies. It gives comprehensive information on gastric cancer not neglecting the basic sciences, which can shed light on the carcinogenesis mechanisms involved in this pathology. The principles of tailored and multimodal treatment are examined according to the latest guidelines with the aim of providing a valuable synopsis for clinicians. The book not only reviews what has changed in the field of gastric cancer over the past quarter century but also offers the reader a glimpse of the future by describing the ongoing surgical and oncological trials which focus on new treatment frontiers such as immunotherapy and target therapy. It also seeks to incorporate the latest discoveries based on molecular classifications. Further, the book reflects the findings and experiences of Italian experts belonging to the GIRCG (Italian Research Group for Gastric Cancer) and will offer an excellent guide for oncological surgeons in their daily practice of caring for patients affected by gastric cancer.

Endoscopy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Author: Richard Kozarek

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-03

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 3319110772

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This book conjoins the latest advances on the use of endoscopy to diagnose, monitor, and treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Chapters include the historical use of rigid sigmoidoscopy, non-interventional imaging procedures, and the correlation of pathology and endoscopic visualization. This is the first book to include individual chapters in gastroenterology, colorectal surgery, and IBD texts, the preeminent role of endoscopic imaging in the management of chronic ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. It also includes chapters on capsule endoscopy and balloon and overtube-assisted enteroscopy to define the presence and activity of Crohn's enteritis and additional chapters defining the use of random biopsies versus chromoendoscopy, and computer enhanced imaging to define possible dysplasia development. The book also includes access to online videos, making it the ultimate verbal and visual tool for all medical professionals interested in the advances in the field over the last several decades. Endoscopy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a concise text that is of great value to practicing endoscopists, gastroenterologists, general or colorectal surgeons, physicians in training, and all medical professionals caring for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.