Abstracto

Evolution and role of cancer biology and inhibition of metabolism and tumor development.

Robert Mathew

Cancer goes through a series of events called 'somatic evolution'. A central premise of Darwinian evolution is that the environment exerts pressure to select species that best fit the context of this particular microenvironment. Furthermore, the rate of evolution is proportional to both 1) the strength of environmental selection and the phenotypic variance of the selected population. It is noteworthy that the selective landscape continuously changes during cancer progression from carcinogenesis to local invasion to metastasis; this means that these phenotypes confer a selective advantage in the process of environmental selection. One of the most widely selected phenotypes for him is the aerobic glycolysis phenotype. H. Continued fermentation of glucose even when sufficient oxygen is present. The mechanism of this so-called "Warburg effect" has been well studied, and there are several models that explain how this happens at the molecular level. Further, it has been shown that inhibition of extracellular acidosis can inhibit metastasis and promote anti-tumor immunity.