Abstract
In ancient medical handbooks, Hippocrates and Galen declared cancer as an incurable disease. Since Greek antiquity this two minds have shaped the current practice of medicine and their grim statement about cancer therapy remains a major challenge for our species in the 21 century. Our increasing understanding of cancer biology has led to the development of molecularly targeted anticancer drugs. The promising outcomes of targeted therapies and the incremental improvements in patients’ survival have given hope for a complete cancer remission. Unfortunately, targeted therapies are currently facing the presence of tumour resistance, often resulting from compensatory signalling pathways, or from the development of acquired resistance in cancer cells via clonal evolution under the selective pressures of treatment. Exploring the role of tumour heterogeneity in the development of drug resistance lead to a new perception of cancer as a complex, dynamic and adaptive ecosystem underpinned by genetic diversity and epigenetic plasticity. Despite this negative aspect, inherent Darwinian character of cancer cells alternatively paves the way towards novel opportunities for the development of revolutionary cancer therapies.
Citation
Dosset M and Vargas TR. Cancer Therapy Evolution: When Genetics and Epigenetics Intertwine to Create Novel Opportunities. SM J Biol. 2018; 4(1): 1018.