‘Cyber War’ on Cancer

Researchers at Rice, Tel Aviv and Johns Hopkins universities aim to break cancer’s codes for social networking

In the face of mounting evidence that cancer cells communicate, cooperate and even engage in collective decision-making, biophysicists and cancer researchers at Rice University, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University are suggesting a new strategy for outsmarting cancer through its own social intelligence.

“We need to get beyond the notion that cancer is a random collection of cells running amok,” said Herbert Levine, co-director of Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and co-author of the cover article in this week’s Trends in Microbiologythat pulls together dozens of recent discoveries about the social behavior of cancer cells. “These cells lead sophisticated social lives.”

Article co-author Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at CTBP, said, “Cancer is a sophisticated enemy. There’s growing evidence that cancer cells use advanced communications to work together to enslave normal cells, create metastases, resist drugs and decoy the body’s immune system.”

Ben-Jacob, Levine and Donald Coffey, a noted cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, suggest in the article that cancer researchers act like modern generals and go after their enemy’s command, control and communication capabilities. The article is in volume 20, issue 9, pages 403-410 of the journal.

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