Defined Mathematical Relationships Among Cancer Cells Suggest Modular Growth in Tumor Progression and Highlight Developmental Features Consistent With a Para-Embryonic Nature of Cancer

• Main Author: Giovanni Manzo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-08-01
• Series: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
• Subjects: tumor propagation; tumor hierarchy; cancer stem cell (CSC); tumor sphere; embryo
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcell.2020.00804/full

Several similarities between the embryo development and the cancer process suggest the para-embryonic nature of tumors. Starting from an initial cancer stem cell (i-CSC) as a para-embryonic stem cell (p-ESC), a hierarchic sequence of CSCs (CSC1s, CSC2s, CSC3s) and non-CSCs [cancer progenitor cells (CPCs), cancer differentiated cells (CDCs)] would be generated, mimicking an ectopic rudimentary ontogenesis. Such a proposed heterogeneous cell hierarchy within the tumor structure would suggest a tumor growth model consistent with experimental data reported for mammary tumors. By tabulating the theoretical data according to this model, it is possible to identify defined mathematical relationships between cancer cells (CSCs and non-CSCs) that are surprisingly similar to experimental data. Moreover, starting from this model, it is possible to speculate that, during progression, tumor growth would occur in a modular way that recalls the propagation of tumor spheres in vitro. All these considerations favor a comparison among normal blastocysts (as in vitro embryos), initial avascular tumors (as in vivo abnormal blastocysts) and tumor spheres (as in vitro abnormal blastocysts). In conclusion, this work provides further support for the para-embryonic nature of the cancer process, as recently theorized.