Summary
Cancer arises when the normal controls on cell growth, differentiation and death are subverted. Under physiological conditions, cells proliferate only in response to external stimuli, replicate their genome faithfully, repair damage and then either divide or activate programmed death (apoptosis). Cancer cells ignore inhibitory signals, evade apoptosis, acquire limitless replicative potential, stimulate new blood-vessel growth (angiogenesis) and invade surrounding tissue to spread (metastasis). At the molecular level, these behaviours reflect oncogenic activation (for example, RAS-MAPK, PI3K-AKT or YAP/TAZ pathways), loss of tumour suppressors (p53, RB), reprogrammed metabolism (the “Warburg effect,” glutamine addiction) and altered interactions with the immune system and stroma. Cancer cell biology thus encompasses dysregulation of the cell cycle, survival signalling, cellular energetics, cytoskeletal dynamics, intercellular communication and immune evasion. Understanding these fundamental alterations yields targets for diagnosis, prognostic markers and new therapies.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Computational modelling of glioblastoma microenvironments has been used to optimise the scheduling of radiotherapy and temozolomide. By integrating spatiotemporal dynamics of stem-like and differentiated tumour cells within perivascular niches, model-predicted drug-radiation timing significantly prolonged survival in preclinical trials, illustrating how physics-based simulations can guide personalised regimens. Advances in Hippo pathway biology have identified MAP4K family kinases as parallel activators of LATS1/2, ensuring robust YAP/TAZ inhibition across diverse inputs. This redundancy explains why loss of MST1/2 alone does not unleash oncogenic YAP activity and highlights multiple intervention points within the Hippo cascade. Single-cell analyses of human signet-ring gastric carcinoma and cell-competition studies in glial progenitors reveal that YAP1 activation confers a MYC/E2F-driven “winner” phenotype, displacing diseased or aged neighbours. These findings underscore YAP’s central role in tumour-niche interactions and clonal dominance.
Cancer Cell Biology publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in cancer cell biology across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Hippo pathway: A kinase cascade (MST1/2-LATS1/2) that phosphorylates and inhibits the transcription co-activators YAP/TAZ, controlling organ size and suppressing oncogenic programmes.
YAP/TAZ: Transcriptional co-activators regulated by Hippo signalling; when unphosphorylated they enter the nucleus with TEAD to drive proliferation and survival.
Angiogenesis: Formation of new blood vessels from existing vasculature, essential for tumour growth beyond a few millimetres in size.
Warburg effect: Cancer-associated reprogramming of glucose metabolism toward aerobic glycolysis, supporting biomass production and redox balance.
Cell competition: A homeostatic process in which “fitter” cells eliminate neighbouring less fit or diseased cells, relevant to tumour suppression and progression.
Pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic (PK–PD) model: A mathematical framework linking drug dosage and timing to tissue concentrations and biological responses, used to optimise combination therapies.
References
- Computational modelling of perivascular-niche dynamics for the optimization of treatment schedules for glioblastoma. Nature Biomedical Engineering (2021).
- MAP4K family kinases act in parallel to MST1/2 to activate LATS1/2 in the Hippo pathway. Nature Communications (2015).
- Single-cell analysis of gastric signet ring cell carcinoma reveals cytological and immune microenvironment features. Nature Communications (2023).
- Young glial progenitor cells competitively replace aged and diseased human glia in the adult chimeric mouse brain. Nature Biotechnology (2023).
- Amino acid metabolism in immune cells: essential regulators of the effector functions, and promising opportunities to enhance cancer immunotherapy. Journal of Hematology & Oncology (2023).
- Linoleic acid potentiates CD8+ T cell metabolic fitness and antitumor immunity. Cell Metabolism (2023).
- Translational modeling-based evidence for enhanced efficacy of standard-of-care drugs in combination with anti-microRNA-155 in non-small-cell lung cancer. Molecular Cancer (2024).
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