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Natural selection: The evolution of cancer

Nature volume 454, pages 1046–1048 (2008)Cite this article

Cancer cells vary; they compete; the fittest survive. Patrick Goymer reports on how evolutionary biology can be applied to cancer — and what good it might do.

The oncology clinic isn't a field site where one might expect to find an evolutionary biologist. But within the complex ecosystem that is the human body, tumours grow, mutate and face diverse selective pressures as they change and react to their environment. Over hundreds of generations, cells can acquire mutations that promote their errant growth and survival. This makes for diversity both between cancer types and within an individual tumour. But just as species have evolved convergent similarities, cancers too have common themes and steps along their developmental paths. If properly directed with evolutionary theory in mind, treatments might become more effective (see 'Targeting what isn't there').

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  1. Patrick Goymer
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Patrick Goymer is associate editor of Nature Reviews Genetics.

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Goymer, P. Natural selection: The evolution of cancer. Nature 454, 1046–1048 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4541046a

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