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CANCER GENETICS

Stochastic transitions as a major source of cancer heterogeneity

Nature Reviews Genetics (2022)Cite this article

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Heterogeneity of cancer cells within a particular tumour (intra-tumour heterogeneity, ITH) has critical clinical significance, but the mechanisms that generate this heterogeneity are only partially understood and under constant debate. Arguably, the most widely appreciated mechanism is genetic — ongoing tumour evolution involves mutations and chromosomal aberrations that are restricted to subsets of cancer cells, thereby defining distinct genetic subclones. A second widely appreciated mechanism is the impact of the tumour microenvironment (TME), whereby cancer cells interact with other cells in their environment and are further influenced by hypoxia and various extracellular molecules.

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References

Original article

  • Gupta, P. B. et al. Stochastic state transitions give rise to phenotypic equilibrium in populations of cancer cells. Cell 146, 633–644 (2011)

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  1. Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Itay Tirosh

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  1. Itay Tirosh
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Correspondence to Itay Tirosh.

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Tirosh, I. Stochastic transitions as a major source of cancer heterogeneity. Nat Rev Genet (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-022-00508-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-022-00508-2

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