Cancer stem cells and self-metastatic tumor morphology
Tumors are intrinsically heterogeneous. The majority of the tumor cells have limited life span and replicative potential, and only a small minority - so-called cancer stem cells - live forever, divide infinitely and potentially produce more such stem cells. It is these stem cells that determine tumor formation, and their dynamics is counterintutively inhibited by their non-stem progeny. Only a high migration rate can liberate stem cells and enable their migration to seed new clones in the vicinity of the original cluster. In this manner, the tumour continually 'self-metastasises'.
We use computer models to define the behavior of single cells, and then let single cells populate a compuational domain. As the number of cancer cell increases over time competition for environmental resources (such as space) defines population dynamics. A result is a cancer cell population - a tumor - growing sub-exponentially. Tumor progession is dictated by the ability of stem cells to form self-metastases that together form a malignant invasive morphology.
[paper]
Migration rules: tumours are conglomerates of self-metastases
Enderling H, Hlatky L, Hahnfeldt P.
Center of Cancer Systems Biology, Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, 736 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02135, USA.
Br J Cancer. 2009. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605071