ArticleTranslational oncology2008
Ecological therapy for cancer: defining tumors using an ecosystem paradigm suggests new opportunities for novel cancer treatments.
Article in Translational oncology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed.
- An Open-Label Study of the Safety and Efficacy of Tag-7 Gene-Modified Tumor Cells-Based Vaccine in Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Malignant Melanoma or Renal Cell Cancer.The oncologist · 2020Trial
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- Tumor ecology and the paradox of clean margins in multicentric breast cancer: an exploratory organoid-based functional study.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2026Review
- The theory of tumor immuno-ecodynamics.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Cancer, collapse, and the politics of somatic evolution.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Review
- Activated CD27Gastro hep advances · 2025Article
- Modeling tumors as complex ecosystems.iScience · 2024Review
- An Overview of Optic Pathway Glioma With Neurofibromatosis Type 1: Pathogenesis, Risk Factors, and Therapeutic Strategies.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2024Review
- Onco-Breastomics: An Eco-Evo-Devo Holistic Approach.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Updating the Definition of Cancer.Molecular cancer research : MCR · 2023Article
- Reuniting philosophy and science to advance cancer research.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2023Article
- Novel CAF-identifiers via transcriptomic and protein level analysis in HNSC patients.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Cell facilitation promotes growth and survival under drug pressure in breast cancer.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Integration of quantitative methods and mathematical approaches for the modeling of cancer cell proliferation dynamics.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2023Review
- The Regulation of Microglial Cell Polarization in the Tumor Microenvironment: A New Potential Strategy for Auxiliary Treatment of Glioma-A Review.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2023Review
- Nasopharyngeal carcinoma ecology theory: cancer as multidimensional spatiotemporal "unity of ecology and evolution" pathological ecosystem.Theranostics · 2023Review
- [Hepatocellular carcinoma immune microenvironment].Zhonghua gan zang bing za zhi = Zhonghua ganzangbing zazhi = Chinese journal of hepatology · 2022Review
- Identification of key tumor stroma-associated transcriptional signatures correlated with survival prognosis and tumor progression in breast cancer.Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2022Article
- Dual Effect of Immune Cells within Tumour Microenvironment: Pro- and Anti-Tumour Effects and Their Triggers.Cancers · 2022Review
- Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We propose that there is an opportunity to devise new cancer therapies based on the recognition that tumors have properties of ecological systems. Traditionally, localized treatment has targeted the cancer cells directly by removing them (surgery) or killing them (chemotherapy and radiation). These modes of therapy have not always been effective because many tumors recur after these therapies, either because not all of the cells are killed (local recurrence) or because the cancer cells had already escaped the primary tumor environment (distant recurrence). There has been an increasing recognition that the tumor microenvironment contains host noncancer cells in addition to cancer cells, interacting in a dynamic fashion over time. The cancer cells compete and/or cooperate with nontumor cells, and the cancer cells may compete and/or cooperate with each other. It has been demonstrated that these interactions can alter the genotype and phenotype of the host cells as well as the cancer cells. The interaction of these cancer and host cells to remodel the normal host organ microenvironment may best be conceptualized as an evolving ecosystem. In classic terms, an ecosystem describes the physical and biological components of an environment in relation to each other as a unit. Here, we review some properties of tumor microenvironments and ecological systems and indicate similarities between them. We propose that describing tumors as ecological systems defines new opportunities for novel cancer therapies and use the development of prostate cancer metastases as an example. We refer to this as "ecological therapy" for cancer.
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Registered trials
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