ArticlePLoS biology2025
Applying multilevel selection to understand cancer evolution and progression.
Article in PLoS biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Metastasis as a breakdown of the multicellular social contract.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Review
- Exploring tumorigenesis as a process of phenotypic state-space exploration and selective funneling.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Revisiting Clonal Evolution Through the Light of Retrotransposons.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Coevolution of cooperative lifestyles and reduced cancer prevalence in mammals.Science advances · 2025Article
- Unveiling cancer crosstalk: Mapping complexity across time and space.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Leveraging selection for function in tumor evolution: System-level cancer therapies.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Natural selection occurs at multiple levels of organization in cancer. At an organismal level, natural selection has led to the evolution of diverse tumor suppression mechanisms, while at a cellular level, it favors traits that promote cellular proliferation, survival and cancer. Natural selection also occurs at a subcellular level, among collections of cells and even among collections of organisms; selection at these levels could influence the evolution of cancer and cancer suppression mechanisms, affecting cancer risk and treatment strategies. There may also be cancer-like processes happening at different levels of organization, in which uncontrolled proliferation at lower levels may disrupt a higher level of organization. This Essay examines how selection operates across levels, highlighting how we might leverage this understanding to improve cancer research, prevention and treatment.
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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.