Cancer cells can be conceived as“living organisms”interacting with cellular or non-cellular components in the host internal environment,not only the local tumor microenvironment but also the distant organ niches,as ...Cancer cells can be conceived as“living organisms”interacting with cellular or non-cellular components in the host internal environment,not only the local tumor microenvironment but also the distant organ niches,as well as the immune,nervous and endocrine systems,to construct a self-sustainable tumor ecosystem.With increasing evidence for the systemic tumor-host interplay,we predict that a new era of cancer therapy targeting the ecosystemic vulnerability of human malignancies has come.Revolving around the tumor ecosystem scoped as different hierarchies of primary,regional,distal and systemic onco-spheres,we comprehensively review the tumor-host interaction among cancer cells and their local microenvironment,distant organ niches,immune,nervous and endocrine systems,highlighting material and energy flow with tumor ecological homeostasis as an internal driving force.We also substantiate the knowledge of visualizing,modelling and subtyping this dynamically intertwined networkwith recent technological advances,and discuss ecologically rational strategies formore effective cancer therapies.展开更多
基金Natural Science Foundation of China,Grant/Award Numbers:81621004,81930081Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation,Grant/Award Number:2021A1515010238China Postdoctoral Science Foundation,Grant/Award Numbers:2020M683106,2021T140763。
文摘Cancer cells can be conceived as“living organisms”interacting with cellular or non-cellular components in the host internal environment,not only the local tumor microenvironment but also the distant organ niches,as well as the immune,nervous and endocrine systems,to construct a self-sustainable tumor ecosystem.With increasing evidence for the systemic tumor-host interplay,we predict that a new era of cancer therapy targeting the ecosystemic vulnerability of human malignancies has come.Revolving around the tumor ecosystem scoped as different hierarchies of primary,regional,distal and systemic onco-spheres,we comprehensively review the tumor-host interaction among cancer cells and their local microenvironment,distant organ niches,immune,nervous and endocrine systems,highlighting material and energy flow with tumor ecological homeostasis as an internal driving force.We also substantiate the knowledge of visualizing,modelling and subtyping this dynamically intertwined networkwith recent technological advances,and discuss ecologically rational strategies formore effective cancer therapies.
