MSK computational biologist Sohrab Shah, together with BC Cancer's Samuel Aparicio, led a new study about cancer evolution.

Scientists Obtain Real-Time Look at How Cancers Evolve

submited by
Style Pass
2021-06-25 19:00:06

MSK computational biologist Sohrab Shah, together with BC Cancer's Samuel Aparicio, led a new study about cancer evolution.

From amoebas to zebras, all living things evolve. They change over time as pressures from the environment cause individuals with certain traits to become more common in a population while those with other traits become less common.

Cancer is no different. Within a growing tumor, cancer cells with the best ability to compete for resources and withstand environmental stressors will come to dominate in frequency. It’s “survival of the fittest” on a microscopic scale.

But fitness — how well suited any particular individual is to its environment — isn’t set in stone; it can change when the environment changes. The cancer cells that might do best in an environment saturated with chemotherapy drugs are likely to be different than the ones that will thrive in an environment without those drugs. So, predicting how tumors will evolve over time, especially in response to treatment, is a major challenge for scientists.

A new study by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering in collaboration with researchers at the University of British Columbia/BC Cancer in Canada suggests that one day it may be possible to make those predictions. The study, published June 23, 2021, in the journal Nature, was led by MSK computational biologist Sohrab Shah and BC Cancer breast cancer researcher Samuel Aparicio. The scientists showed that a machine-learning approach, built using principles of population genetics that describe how populations change over time, could accurately predict how human breast cancer tumors will evolve.

Leave a Comment