Cancer evolves through dynamic exchanges with its environment, harnessing these interactions to grow, adapt, and transcend the constraints…
Biology & Life Sciences
Unveiling cancer crosstalk across spatial and temporal scales
This collection of comment, review and opinion articles focuses on how recent technological advancements in omics approaches (such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) have enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms governing tumor progression across spatial and temporal scales — from tumorigenesis to metastatic dissemination. The articles cover diverse topics, including: how single-cell and spatial omics approaches have shed light on the evolution of cancer clones and revealed the complexities of the crosstalk between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment; how cellular metabolism is rewired to meet the demands of the tumor; and the mechanisms of metastatic spread to distant organs.
Image Credit: Cancer Cells Hijacked Macrophages in Human Bone Metastases by Yujiao Han, Yibin Kang, Princeton University CC BY 4.0
Editorial
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Image creditNetwork, Internet, Technology by Pete Linforth, Pixabay LicensePLOS Biology Unveiling cancer crosstalk: Mapping complexity across time and space
Perspectives
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PLOS Biology Can the tumor neural niche be targeted to re-program cancer?
Interactions between the peripheral nervous system and solid tumors influence cancer progression and treatment response. Defining the 3D…
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PLOS Biology Challenges and opportunities for the next generation of computational tumor models
Mathematical models have become essential tools for exploring the complex interplay between cancer cells and their microenvironment, but…
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PLOS Biology TiME for a change: The tumor microenvironment as the missing piece in cancer therapeutics
Cancer treatments often fall short of durable cures, yet most therapeutic strategies neglect the tumor stroma. A concerted effort is…
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Image creditMedicine, Biology, Healthcare by PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay LicensePLOS Biology Omics datasets can bridge the gap between tumor biology and patient care
Large-scale omics datasets from tumor samples are becoming ever easier to generate and analyze. As technology continues to push forward,…
Essays
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PLOS Biology Bi-directional metabolic reprogramming between cancer cells and T cells reshapes the anti-tumor immune response
Cancer cells and T cells engage in dynamic crosstalk within the tumor microenvironment (TME), shaping tumor progression and anti-tumor…
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PLOS Biology Decoding metastatic microenvironments through single-cell omics reveals new insights into niche dynamics and tumor evolution
Metastasis is the predominant cause of cancer mortality, primarily driven by complex tumor–host interactions within specialized metastatic…
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PLOS Biology Masters of adaptation: How cancer and immune cell plasticity mediates tumor progression
One of the greatest challenges to cancer therapy is tumor cell plasticity. Cancer cells can rapidly alter their phenotype to promote…
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PLOS Biology Applying multilevel selection to understand cancer evolution and progression
Natural selection occurs at multiple levels of organization in cancer. At an organismal level, natural selection has led to the evolution…
PLOS Blog
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Image creditCells Human Medical by Arek Socha, Pixabay License
Featured Editors
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Guest Editor, PLOS Biology Yibin Kang
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Senior Editor, PLOS Biology Richard Hodge
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Locum Front Section Senior Editor, PLOS Biology Daniel Routledge
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Front Section Senior Editor, PLOS Biology Joanna Clarke