Prospects for the Application of Methods of Evolutionary Biology in Oncology

• Published in: Journal of evolutionary biochemistry and physiology Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 318 - 330
• Main Authors: Potievskii, M. B., Shegai, P. V., Kaprin, A. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-03-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Physiology; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Developmental biology; Evolution; Evolutionary Biology; Life Sciences; Oncology; Reviews; Tumors; evolutionary medicine; evolutionary oncology
• ISSN: 0022-0930; 1608-3202
• DOI: 10.1134/S0022093022020028

Oncological diseases is the second leading cause of death among noninfectious diseases in Russia and worldwide. Evolutionary medicine is a relatively new discipline at the junction of evolutionary biology, human genetics and medicine, which employs the methods of evolutionary biology to explore the nature of pathological processes in the human body. The prospects for the application of the evolutionary approach in oncology are associated with studying the pathogenesis of malignant neoplasms, causes of their emergence in the process of evolution, as well as basic mechanisms of the pathomorphosis and formation of demographic differences in clinical manifestations of oncological diseases. One of the promising areas of research in the field of evolutionary medicine is the study of clonal evolution of tumors, which can be used to reveal the developmental patterns of individual types of malignant neoplasms. The results of such studies can lay the groundwork for the development of methods of early diagnosis, more effective treatment and prevention of cancer. This article provides an insight into evolutionary oncology as a novel biomedical field of knowledge.