Cell Competition Boosts Clonal Evolution and Hypoxic Selection in Cancer.

The comparison of fitness between cells leads to the elimination of less competent cells in the presence of more competent neighbors via cell competition (CC). This phenomenon has been linked with several cancer-related genes and thus may play an important role in cancer. Various processes are involved in the regulation of tumor initiation and growth, including tumor hypoxia, clonal stem cell selection, and immune cell response, all of which have been recently shown to have a potential connection with the mechanisms involved in CC. This review aims to unravel the relation between these processes and competitive cell interactions and how this affects disease progression.