Cell plasticity and genomic instability in cancer evolution

Abstract

Cancer cells evolve throughout disease progression and tumor relapse. Such evolution is a dynamic process resulting in genotypic and phenotypic cellular changes, conferring a high level of cell plasticity. Data derived from next-generation sequencing strategies have implicated that cancer cell plasticity could be driven by genetic changes induced by genomic instability during cancer evolution. Understanding the mechanisms of how genomic instability promotes mutagenesis and cancer cell plasticity could thus be critical avenue for cancer prevention and intervention. In this review, we discuss the relationships between cancer cell plasticity, genomic instability and mutagenesis during cancer evolution. We offer our insight and opinion on therapeutic strategies in this rapidly progressing research field.