ReviewSeminars in cell & developmental biology2009
Cancer attractors: a systems view of tumors from a gene network dynamics and developmental perspective.
Review in Seminars in cell & developmental biology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 227 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
227 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systemic Alterations of Cancer Cells and Their Boost by Polyploidization: Unicellular Attractor (UCA) Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Repair and misrepair of telomeric DNA in dynamic interactions with PML nuclear bodies and lamin B1 in doxorubicin-treated cancer cells.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2026Article
- Article
- Condensates and cell states: A new paradigm for understanding tumor biology.Biophysical journal · 2026Review
- A Convergence Model of Bioelectric, Gap Junctional, and Hippo-YAP Signalling in Oral Cancer Stem Cell Maintenance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Loss of tissue-state plasticity: a conceptual framework for age-associated regenerative failure.Inflammation and regeneration · 2026Review
- From Cognitive Agents to Cognitive Systems: Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Developments of van Gelder's (1998) "Dynamical Hypothesis".Topics in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Review
- Inferring stochastic dynamics by biophysical Neural ODE using single-cell transcriptomics.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Network resilience of the human interactome to pan-cancer mutations reveals conserved pathway vulnerabilities.iScience · 2026Article
- On the molecular basis of enduring memory in neurons, and cell fate in fibroblasts.Nucleic acids research · 2026Review
- Review
- Modulation of Network Plasticity Opens Novel Therapeutic Possibilities in Cancer, Diabetes, and Neurodegeneration.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Beyond static biomarkers: systems biology and AI for decoding cancer dynamics.Frontiers in systems biology · 2026Review
- Mapping cancer dynamics from normal tissue to malignancy using N- and T-gene expression markers.Frontiers in systems biology · 2026Article
- Energy landscapes and synergetic state transitions in frustrated Stuart-Landau oscillator networks: a homotopy continuation study.Frontiers in network physiology · 2026Article
- AI-Guided Inference of Morphodynamic Attractor-like States in Glioblastoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- DNV-TC: a developmental network vulnerability-based classification system for precision oncology.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- PRSS22 as a novel prognostic and immune regulatory biomarker in PanCancer multiomics analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- NF-κB epigenetic attractor landscape drives breast cancer heterogeneity.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2025Article
167 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cell lineage commitment and differentiation are governed by a complex gene regulatory network. Disruption of these processes by inappropriate regulatory signals and by mutational rewiring of the network can lead to tumorigenesis. Cancer cells often exhibit immature or embryonic traits and dysregulated developmental genes can act as oncogenes. However, the prevailing paradigm of somatic evolution and multi-step tumorigenesis, while useful in many instances, offers no logically coherent reason for why oncogenesis recapitulates ontogenesis. The formal concept of "cancer attractors", derived from an integrative, complex systems approach to gene regulatory network may provide a natural explanation. Here we present the theory of attractors in gene network dynamics and review the concept of cell types as attractors. We argue that cancer cells are trapped in abnormal attractors and discuss this concept in the light of recent ideas in cancer biology, including cancer genomics and cancer stem cells, as well as the implications for differentiation therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.