Cellular spartans at the pass: Emerging intricacies of cell competition in early and late tumorigenesis

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2023.102315
• Publication Date: 2024-01-04T12:52:23Z
• Authors: Carlos Fernández ...; Natalie Geyer; Marco Gerling
• Keywords: Cell type

Cell competition is a mechanism for cellular quality control based on cell-cell comparisons of fitness. Recent studies have unveiled central and complex role cell in cancer. Early tumors exploit to replace neighboring normal epithelial cells. Intestinal adenomas, example, use outcompete wild-type However, oncogenic mutations do not always confer an advantage: cells can identify mutant enforce their extrusion through competition, process termed "epithelial defense against cancer". A particularly interesting situation emerges metastasis: supercompetitive tumor encounter heterotypic partners engage reciprocal with diverging outcomes. This article sheds light the emerging complexity by highlighting recent that unveil its context dependency. Finally, we propose tissue histomorphology implies crucial at invasion fronts metastases, warranting increased attention future studies.