Metastatic Progression And Tumour Heterogeneity

Improved understanding of the cellular and molecular makeup of tumors in the last 30 years has unraveled a previously unexpected level of heterogeneity among tumor cells as well as within the tumor microenvironment. The concept of tumor heterogeneity underlines the realization that different tumors can display significant differences in their genomic content as well as in their overall behavior. Our capacity to better understand the heterogeneous make up of tumors has very important consequences on our ability to design efficient therapeutic strategies to improve patient survival. This book highlights several aspects of tumor heterogeneity in the context of metastatic development and summarize some of the challenges posed by heterogeneity for tumor diagnostics and therapeutic management of tumors.

Improved understanding of the cellular and molecular makeup of tumors in the last 30 years has unraveled a previously unexpected level of heterogeneity among tumor cells as well as within the tumor microenvironment. The concept of tumor heterogeneity underlines the realization that different tumors can display significant differences in their genomic content as well as in their overall behavior. Our capacity to better understand the heterogeneous make up of tumors has very important consequences on our ability to design efficient therapeutic strategies to improve patient survival. This book highlights several aspects of tumor heterogeneity in the context of metastatic development and summarize some of the challenges posed by heterogeneity for tumor diagnostics and therapeutic management of tumors.

This open access volume will introduce recent discoveries in cancer metabolism since the publication of the first edition in 2018, providing readers with an up-to-date understanding of developments in the field. Genetic alterations in cancer, in addition to being the fundamental drivers of tumorigenesis, can give rise to a variety of metabolic adaptations that allow cancer cells to survive and proliferate in diverse tumor microenvironments. This metabolic flexibility is different from normal cellular metabolic processes and leads to heterogeneity in cancer metabolism within the same cancer type or even within the same tumor. In this book, the authors delve into the complexity and diversity of cancer metabolism and highlight how understanding the heterogeneity of cancer metabolism is fundamental to the development of effective metabolism-based therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment. Deciphering how cancer cells utilize various nutrient resources will enable clinicians and researchers to pair specific chemotherapeutic agents with patients who are most likely to respond with positive outcomes, allowing for more cost-effective and personalized cancer treatment. This book has four major parts. Part one will cover the basic metabolism of cancer cells, followed by a discussion of the heterogeneity of cancer metabolism in part two. Part three addresses the relationship between cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts, and the new part four will explore the metabolic interplay between cancer and other diseases. This new section makes the book unique from other texts currently available on the market. The second edition will be useful for cancer metabolism researchers, cancer biologists, epidemiologists, physicians, health care professionals in related disciplines, policymakers, marketing and economic strategists, among others. It may also be used in courses such as intro to cancer metabolism, cancer biology, and related biochemistry courses for undergraduate and graduate students.

Tumor cells have a remarkable ability to survive in harsh circumstances, resist treatment and evade regulatory mechanisms like apoptosis and therapy. They alter their metabolism in order to sustain metastatic progression and uncontrolled growth. Functional and phenotypic heterogeneity in tumor cells gives them metastatic potential, aggressiveness and the capability to resist treatment. This heterogeneity is governed by a range of intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli involving the ones from the tumor microenvironment. Various tumor cells can exhibit heterogeneous phenotypic and morphological profiles comprising gene expression, metastatic potential, metabolism, proliferation, cellular morphology and motility. It have been detected in many types of cancer including breast cancer, head and neck cancer, gynecological carcinoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, prostate cancer, colon cancer, bladder, brain cancer and liposarcoma. This book contains some path-breaking studies on tumor heterogeneity. It strives to provide a fair idea about tumor heterogeneity and to help develop a better understanding of the diagnostics and therapeutic management of tumors. This book will help new researchers by foregrounding their knowledge in this area of study.

Recent studies have highlighted that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is not only about cell migration and invasion, but it can also govern many other important elements such as immunosuppression, metabolic reprogramming, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), stem cell properties, therapy resistance, and tumor microenvironment interactions. With the on-going debate about the requirement of EMT for cancer metastasis, an emerging focus on intermediate states of EMT and its reverse process mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) offer new ideas for metastatic requirements and the dynamics of EMT/MET during the entire metastatic cascade. Therefore, we would like to initiate discussions on viewing EMT and its downstream signaling networks as a fulcrum of cellular plasticity, and a facilitator of the adaptive responses of cancer cells to distant organ microenvironments and various therapeutic assaults. We hereby invite scientists who have prominently contributed to this field, and whose valuable insights have led to the appreciation of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity as a more comprehensive mediator of the adaptive response of cancer cells, with huge implications in metastasis, drug resistance, tumor relapse, and patient survival.

The volume will serve as a primer on tyrosine kinase signaling and its importance in cancer. The volume will first introduce the common denominators of small-molecule and antibody-derived inhibitors, as well as the general phenomenon of resistance. The volume will then detail resistance to the most commonly used classes of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and will focus specific chapters on resistance to BCR-ABL1, FLT3, angiokinase family members, and ALK inhibitors.

This book offers significant coverage on different aspects of cancer from risk factors to the mechanisms leading to tumor progression and metastasis. Although tremendous progress has been made in cancer research and treatment, cancer metastasis remains a major unmet clinical need. The life and death of many cancer patients hangs on the degree of metastasis. This book provides new perspectives for diagnosis and cancer therapy. It includes new technologies and a new basis for current cancer therapies. To guarantee the high quality of this book, important topics are included and rigorously discussed in a simple and authentic way. The book addresses important challenges governing tumor progression and metastasis and brings new responses to both diagnosis and therapy. This book is a great source of knowledge and will be useful for researchers, medical doctors, oncologists, graduate and medical students, continued medical educators, health care providers, and all individuals interested in understanding cancer and its challenges.

Resistance to therapies, both targeted and systemic, and metastases to distant organs are the underlying causes of breast cancer-associated mortality. The second edition of Breast Cancer Metastasis and Drug Resistance brings together some of the leading experts to comprehensively understand breast cancer: the factors that make it lethal, and current research and clinical progress. This volume covers the following core topics: basic understanding of breast cancer (statistics, epidemiology, racial disparity and heterogeneity), metastasis and drug resistance (bone metastasis, trastuzumab resistance, tamoxifen resistance and novel therapeutic targets, including non-coding RNAs, inflammatory cytokines, cancer stem cells, ubiquitin ligases, tumor microenvironment and signaling pathways such as TRAIL, JAK-STAT and mTOR) and recent developments in the field (epigenetic regulation, microRNAs-mediated regulation, novel therapies and the clinically relevant 3D models). Experts also discuss the advances in laboratory research along with their translational and clinical implications with an overarching goal to improve the diagnosis and prognosis, particularly that of breast cancer patients with advanced disease.