The development of metastases is subject to the model of interspecies competition in the environment
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
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The metastatic cancer develops according to the Tilman model, which describes interspecific competition in ecological communities.
Scientists (University of Michigan, USA) have attempted to describe the growth and development of cancer metastases using the Tilman model, which is used to assess interspecific competition, taking into account the resource consumption consumed by each species.
In this study, as species, scientists examined healthy and cancer cells. The object of the study was prostate cancer, which often metastasizes into the bone marrow. Prostate cancer itself can be successfully removed and treated with chemotherapy, however, several years later, tumor cells that have entered the bone marrow are activated and provoke the development of blood cancer.
Scientists likened metastasis of cancer cells to bone tissue appearance of a new species. Like the evolution and selection that lead to speciation, genetic mutations and the proliferation of cancer cells in the prostate end in the fact that some of them leave the primary cancerous tumor and go wandering around the human body. If he survives in the bloodstream and does not fall under the impact of the immune system, they settle in the bone marrow. Then the period of habituation of cells to a new environment begins, after which there is a geometric increase in the number of cancer cells and displacement of normal stem cells of the bone marrow.
The authors of the study write that metastatic cancer cells can be compared to species that, as a result of certain mutations, have become more adaptable to the environment. As a result of effective use of resources, they easily displace indigenous species.
Scientists hope that the results of the research will help doctors in the fight against inactive cancer metastases.
Recall that recently, scientists from the US (University of California, Santa Barbara) presented a revolutionary technology that makes it possible to distinguish cancer cells from the prostate gland from healthy cells.