Cancer initiation and progression: an unsimplifiable complexity

doi:10.1186/1742-4682-3-37

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

Volume 3

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Grizzi F
Di Ieva A
Russo C
Frezza EE
Cobos E
Muzzio PC
Chiriva-Internati M

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Di Ieva A
Russo C
Frezza EE
Cobos E
Muzzio PC
Chiriva-Internati M
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Commentary

Cancer initiation and progression: an unsimplifiable complexity

Fabio Grizzi¹^,5 , Antonio Di Ieva² , Carlo Russo¹ , Eldo E Frezza³^,4 , Everardo Cobos⁴^,5 , Pier Carlo Muzzio⁶^,7 and Maurizio Chiriva-Internati⁴^,5

¹Laboratories of Quantitative Medicine, Istituto Clinico Humanitas IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089 Rozzano, Milan, Italy

²Department of Neurosurgery, Istituto Clinico Humanitas IRCCS, Via Manzoni 56, 20089 Rozzano, Milan, Italy

³Department of Surgery, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Southwest Cancer Treatment and Research Center, Lubbock, Texas 79430, USA

⁴Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Southwest Cancer Treatment and Research Center, Lubbock, Texas 79430, USA

⁵Division of Hematology & Oncology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Southwest Cancer Treatment and Research Center, Lubbock, Texas 79430, USA

⁶Department of Medical-Diagnostic Sciences and Special Therapies, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy

⁷Istituto Oncologico Veneto IRCCS, Ospedale Busonera – Via Gattamelata 64, Padua, Italy

author email corresponding author email

Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 2006, 3:37doi:10.1186/1742-4682-3-37


Published:	17 October 2006

Abstract

Background

Cancer remains one of the most complex diseases affecting humans and, despite the impressive advances that have been made in molecular and cell biology, how cancer cells progress through carcinogenesis and acquire their metastatic ability is still widely debated.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that human carcinogenesis is a dynamic process that depends on a large number of variables and is regulated at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Viewing cancer as a system that is dynamically complex in time and space will, however, probably reveal more about its underlying behavioural characteristics. It is encouraging that mathematicians, biologists and clinicians continue to contribute together towards a common quantitative understanding of cancer complexity. This way of thinking may further help to clarify concepts, interpret new and old experimental data, indicate alternative experiments and categorize the acquired knowledge on the basis of the similarities and/or shared behaviours of very different tumours.