Cancer ecology

Cancer ecology studies tumors as ecological systems: populations of competing and cooperating cell phenotypes that share a microenvironment of resources, stromal cells, and immune cells.

The idea

Peter Nowell established in 1976 that a tumor is a population of cells descended from a common ancestor, in which heritable variation and selection drive progression. The ecological view extends this: the variation matters because the cells interact. Clones compete for space, glucose, and oxygen; they cooperate by cross-feeding growth factors and remodeling matrix; and their interactions with fibroblasts, macrophages, and vasculature determine which phenotypes expand. Mel Greaves developed this Darwinian account of cancer and applied it