Overlooking Evolution: A Systematic Analysis of Cancer Relapse and Therapeutic Resistance Research

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 6; no. 11; p. e26100
• Main Authors: Aktipis, C. Athena, Kwan, Virginia S. Y., Johnson, Kathryn A., Neuberg, Steven L., Maley, Carlo C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 17.11.2011; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abstracting and Indexing as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Adenosine; Analysis; Biology; Cancer; Cancer research; Clone Cells - drug effects; Clone Cells - metabolism; Clone Cells - pathology; Cloning; Cognition & reasoning; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm - genetics; Esophagus; Evolution; Evolution (Biology); Evolution, Molecular; Health aspects; Humans; Kinases; Leukemia; Medical research; Medicine; Models, Genetic; Mutation; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - genetics; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - pathology; Phylogenetics; Population; Psychology; PubMed - statistics & numerical data; Recurrence (Disease); Researchers; Selection, Genetic; Subject Headings; Theory; Treatment resistance; Tumors; San Francisco California; California; United States > US; Arizona
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026100

Cancer therapy selects for cancer cells resistant to treatment, a process that is fundamentally evolutionary. To what extent, however, is the evolutionary perspective employed in research on therapeutic resistance and relapse? We analyzed 6,228 papers on therapeutic resistance and/or relapse in cancers and found that the use of evolution terms in abstracts has remained at about 1% since the 1980s. However, detailed coding of 22 recent papers revealed a higher proportion of papers using evolutionary methods or evolutionary theory, although this number is still less than 10%. Despite the fact that relapse and therapeutic resistance is essentially an evolutionary process, it appears that this framework has not permeated research. This represents an unrealized opportunity for advances in research on therapeutic resistance.