Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
Biomed Res Int. 2018 Dec 5;2018:5837235. doi: 10.1155/2018/5837235. eCollection 2018.
Cancer treatment options are expanding to the benefit of significant segments of patients. However, their therapeutic power is not equally realized for all cancer patients due to drug toxicity and disease resistance. Overcoming these therapeutic challenges would require a better understanding of the adaptive survival mechanisms of cancer. In this respect, an integrated view of the disease as a complex adaptive system is proposed as a framework to explain the dynamic coupling between the various drivers underlying tumor growth and cancer resistance to therapy. In light of this system view of cancer, the immune system is in principal the most appropriate and naturally available therapeutic instrument that can thwart the adaptive survival mechanisms of cancer. In this respect, new cancer therapies should aim at restoring immunosurveillance by priming the induction of an effective immune response through a judicious targeting of immunosuppression, inflammation, and the tumor nutritional lifeline extended by the tumor microenvironment.
癌症治疗选择正在不断扩展，使大量患者受益。然而，由于药物毒性和耐药性，并非所有癌症患者都能同等程度地从这些治疗方法中获益。克服这些治疗挑战需要更好地了解癌症的适应性生存机制。在这方面，将疾病视为复杂适应系统的综合观点被提出，作为解释肿瘤生长和癌症对治疗耐药性的各种驱动因素之间动态耦合的框架。从这种癌症的系统观点来看，免疫系统原则上是最适当和自然可用的治疗手段，可以挫败癌症的适应性生存机制。在这方面，新的癌症疗法应该通过明智地靶向免疫抑制、炎症和肿瘤微环境延伸的肿瘤营养生命线，来恢复免疫监视，从而诱导有效的免疫反应，以此为目标。
