Medical Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, 1305 York Avenue 12th Floor, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2021 Oct;165:120-139. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2021.05.003. Epub 2021 May 13.
Advanced cancer is one of the major problems in oncology as currently, despite the recent technological and scientific advancements, the mortality of metastatic disease remains very high at 70-90%. The field of oncology is in urgent need of novel ideas in order to improve quality of life and prognostic of cancer patients. The Cancer and Evolution Symposium organized online October 14-16, 2020 brought together a group of specialists from different fields that presented innovative strategies for better understanding, preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer. Today still, the main reasons behind the high incidence and mortality of advanced cancer are, on one hand, the paucity of funding and effort directed to cancer prevention and early detection, and, on the other hand, the lack of understanding of the cancer process itself. I argue that besides being a disease, cancer is also a form of life, and, this frame of reference may provide a fresh look on this complex process. Here, I provide a different angle to several contemporary cancer theories discussing them from the perspective of "cancer-forms of life" (i.e. bionts) point of view. The perspectives and the several "bionts" introduced here, by no means exclusive or comprehensive, are just a shorthand that will hopefully encourage the readers, to further explore the contemporary oncology theoretical landscape.
晚期癌症是肿瘤学中的主要问题之一，因为尽管最近在技术和科学上取得了进步，但转移性疾病的死亡率仍然非常高，为 70-90%。肿瘤学领域急需新的理念，以提高癌症患者的生活质量和预后。2020 年 10 月 14 日至 16 日在线组织的癌症与进化研讨会汇集了来自不同领域的一组专家，他们提出了创新策略，以更好地理解、预防、诊断和治疗癌症。如今，导致晚期癌症发病率和死亡率居高不下的主要原因一方面是预防和早期发现癌症的资金和努力不足，另一方面是对癌症过程本身的认识不足。我认为，癌症不仅是一种疾病，也是一种生命形式，这种参考框架可能为这一复杂过程提供新的视角。在这里，我从“癌症-生命形式”（即生物）的角度提供了对几种当代癌症理论的不同看法。这里介绍的观点和几种“生物”并不是排他性或全面性的，只是一种简写，希望能鼓励读者进一步探索当代肿瘤学理论领域。
