ReviewBritish journal of cancer2015
Non-genetic cancer cell plasticity and therapy-induced stemness in tumour relapse: 'What does not kill me strengthens me'.
Review in British journal of cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 177 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
177 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Inflamed Yet Immune-Evasive? A Transcriptomic Meta-Analysis Identifies Conserved Inflammatory, Developmental, and Neuronal Signatures Associated with Polyploid Giant Cancer Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Cellular Biogenetic Law and Its Distortion by Protein Interactions: A Possible Unified Framework for Cancer Biology and Regenerative Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Noninvasive assessment of breast cancer molecular subtypes on multiparametric MRI using convolutional neural network with transfer learning.Thoracic cancer · 2022Trial
- Regulated cell death plasticity in cancer: thresholds, reversibility, and therapeutic failure.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Travelling Waves in Gene Expression: A Mathematical Model of Cell-State Dynamics in Melanoma.Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2026Article
- The Shape-Shifting Myeloma: Adaptive Plasticity as a Hallmark of Relapse and Refractoriness.Cancers · 2026Review
- Lineage-resolved lifetime modelling reveals potential quiescence and synchronization among MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- Dysregulated Cell Signaling Pathways in Prostate Tumoral Plasticity-Checkpoints.Oncology research · 2026Article
- A Systematic Review of Evidence for the Cost of Therapeutic Resistance in Cancer.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Characterizing and decoding ultraconserved regions uncovers their regulatory significance in human brain development and disorders.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Mapping the Progression of Therapy-Induced Senescence to Therapy Tolerance: An Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanism for Optimizing Cancer Treatment with Senotherapeutics.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Article
- Classification of Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer Using Radiomic Features of Preoperative Ultrasound Images.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2025Article
- Molecular mechanisms altering cell identity in cancer.Oncogene · 2025Review
- A New Adjuvant Treatment for Glioblastoma Using Aprepitant, Vortioxetine, Roflumilast and Olanzapine: The AVRO Regimen.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Unlocking Cellular Memory and Gene Regulatory Networks: Pioneering the Future of Therapeutic Innovations.Cells · 2025Article
- Understanding therapeutic tolerance through a mathematical model of drug-induced resistance.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2025Article
- Radiation-induced cellular plasticity primes glioblastoma for forskolin-mediated differentiation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The end of the genetic paradigm of cancer.PLoS biology · 2025Review
- Single-nucleus CUT&RUN elucidates the function of intrinsic and genomics-driven epigenetic heterogeneity in head and neck cancer progression.Genome research · 2025Article
- [Asia Oceania journal of nuclear medicine & biology · 2025Article
117 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
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Therapy resistance and tumour relapse after drug therapy are commonly explained by Darwinian selection of pre-existing drug-resistant, often stem-like cancer cells resulting from random mutations. However, the ubiquitous non-genetic heterogeneity and plasticity of tumour cell phenotype raises the question: are mutations really necessary and sufficient to promote cell phenotype changes during tumour progression? Cancer therapy inevitably spares some cancer cells, even in the absence of resistant mutants. Accumulating observations suggest that the non-killed, residual tumour cells actively acquire a new phenotype simply by exploiting their developmental potential. These surviving cells are stressed by the cytotoxic treatment, and owing to phenotype plasticity, exhibit a variety of responses. Some are pushed into nearby, latent attractor states of the gene regulatory network which resemble evolutionary ancient or early developmental gene expression programs that confer stemness and resilience. By entering such stem-like, stress-response states, the surviving cells strengthen their capacity to cope with future noxious agents. Considering non-genetic cell state dynamics and the relative ease with which surviving but stressed cells can be tipped into latent attractors provides a foundation for exploring new therapeutic approaches that seek not only to kill cancer cells but also to avoid promoting resistance and relapse that are inherently linked to the attempts to kill them.
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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.