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The development of metastases obeys a pattern of interspecies competition in the environment
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Metastatic cancer develops according to Tilman's model, which describes interspecific competition in ecological communities.
Scientists (University of Michigan, USA) attempted to describe the growth and development of cancer metastases using the Tilman model, which is used to assess interspecies competition, taking into account the resource consumption of each species.
In this study, the scientists examined healthy and cancer cells as types. The object of the study was prostate cancer, which often metastasizes to the bone marrow. Prostate cancer itself can be successfully removed and treated with chemotherapy, but after several years, the tumor cells that have entered the bone marrow become active and provoke the development of blood cancer.
Scientists have likened the metastasis of cancer cells to bone tissue to the emergence of a new species. Similar to evolution and selection, which lead to speciation, genetic mutations and proliferation of prostate cancer cells end with some of them leaving the primary cancerous tumor and traveling around the human body. If they survive in the bloodstream and are not attacked by the immune system, they settle in the bone marrow. Then the cells begin to get used to the new environment, after which there is a geometric increase in the number of cancer cells and the displacement of normal bone marrow stem cells.
The authors of the study write that metastatic cancer cells can be compared to species that have become more adapted to their environment as a result of certain mutations. As a result of efficient use of resources, they easily displace native species.
Scientists hope that the results of the study will help doctors in the fight against inactive cancer metastases.
Let us recall that recently scientists from the USA (University of California - Santa Barbara) presented a revolutionary technology that makes it possible to distinguish prostate cancer cells from healthy cells.