DEVELOPMENT OF SUBPOPULATIONS AS A STRATEGY FOR CANCER GROWTH

SILVIA A. MENCHÓN; CARLOS A. CONDAT

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XIV International Biophysics Congress; 2002

IUPAB

The local abundance of oxygen and nutrients is a determinant of cancer growth. There are two very different pathways to accelerate this growth. The first, angiogenesis, operates by increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients; the second, the development of mutated cancer cell subpopulations, operates on the demand end by leading to a more profitable utilization of available nutrients. We study how the emergence of a second species, characterized by altered nutrient intake and utilization rate modifies the evolution and morphology of a tumor. The appearance of a subpopulation without competitive advantages will not significantly affect growth patterns, while the emergence of a subpopulation whose members can focus their nutrient utilization on proliferation will drastically increase the overall growth rate. The new subpopulation will tend to propagate in tissue regions where the competition with the initial species is rereduced, generating the development of micrometastases and the eventual reduction or elimination of the tumor mass corresponding to the original species.