Yang Kimberline R, Mooney Steven M, Zarif Jelani C, Coffey Donald S, Taichman Russell S, Pienta Kenneth J
Cellular and Molecular Medicine Program, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
J Cell Biochem. 2014 Sep;115(9):1478-85. doi: 10.1002/jcb.24813.
Cancer cells can be described as an invasive species that is able to establish itself in a new environment. The concept of niche construction can be utilized to describe the process by which cancer cells terraform their environment, thereby engineering an ecosystem that promotes the genetic fitness of the species. Ecological dispersion theory can then be utilized to describe and model the steps and barriers involved in a successful diaspora as the cancer cells leave the original host organ and migrate to new host organs to successfully establish a new metastatic community. These ecological concepts can be further utilized to define new diagnostic and therapeutic areas for lethal cancers.
癌细胞可被描述为一种能够在新环境中立足的入侵物种。生态位构建的概念可用于描述癌细胞改造其环境的过程，从而构建一个促进该物种基因适应性的生态系统。然后，生态扩散理论可用于描述和模拟癌细胞离开原始宿主器官并迁移到新宿主器官以成功建立新的转移群落这一成功扩散过程中所涉及的步骤和障碍。这些生态学概念可进一步用于为致命癌症定义新的诊断和治疗领域。
