Abstract
BackgroundThe population dynamics of the various clones of cancer cells existing within a tumour is complex and still poorly understood. Cancer cell clones can be conceptualized as sympatric asexual species, and as such, the application of theoretical population genetics as it pertains to asexual species may provide additional insights.ResultsThe number of generations of tumour cells within a cancer has been estimated at a minimum of 40, but high cancer cell mortality rates suggest that the number of cell generations may actually be in the hundreds. Such a large number of generations would easily allow natural selection to drive clonal evolution assuming that selective advantages of individual clones are within the range reported for free-living animal species. Tumour cell clonal evolution could also be driven by variation in the intrinsic rates of increase of different clones or by genetic drift. In every scenario examined, the presence of cancer stem cells would require lower selection pressure or less variation in intrinsic rates of increase.ConclusionsThe presence of cancer stem cells may result in more rapid clonal evolution. Specific predictions from theoretical population genetics may lead to a greater understanding of this process.
Highlights
The population dynamics of the various clones of cancer cells existing within a tumour is complex and still poorly understood
The presence of cancer stem cells may result in more rapid clonal evolution
Specific predictions from theoretical population genetics may lead to a greater understanding of this process
Summary
The population dynamics of the various clones of cancer cells existing within a tumour is complex and still poorly understood. Because cancer cell clones can be thought of essentially as sympatric asexual species [3,5], theoretical population genetics as it applies to asexually reproducing organisms may provide additional valuable insights into the dynamics of cancer clonal evolution. With a few notable exceptions, [5,6,7,8,9], largely missing from this discussion has been the inclusion of predictions from theoretical population genetics as they pertain to the population dynamics of asexually reproducing species. Such an approach is both timely and necessary as much remains to be elucidated about the population dynamics and evolutionary parameters of cancer cells [1]. Cancer stem cells are often presented as an alternative model to tumour clonal evolution [12], but there is no reason that cancer stem cells may not themselves undergo clonal evolution [18]
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