Multi-compartment Structure in Colorectal Cancer: Differentiation versus Plasticity
Stemness as a dynamic circumstance between mutant and wild-type cells, is in fact the result of genetic, epigenetic, and micro-environmental factors which has been thought as the main cause for onset of diverse cancers. Despite decades of research, colorectal cancer has known as a complex malignancy which occur through possible pathogenetic heterogeneity from genetic/epigenetic variations. Such genetic/epigenetic alterations can develop colon adenocarcinoma from normal colonic epithelium through a hierarchy of progression at the molecular/morphologic level. An interesting approach to study and presumably capture main features of colon cancer is to understand pathological events within and between various crypt compartments. Then evolutionary dynamics can be employed to detect crucial factors leading to survival chance of colorectal cancer. During this talk, using the traditional compartmental viewpoint, we envisage the role of symmetric and asymmetric divisions as well as plasticity between compartments through a new mathematical modeling in the presence of homeostasis. The results of this research may suggest a better understanding of compartmental mechanisms as well as cancer development, relapse and therapy resistance, and possibly therapeutic indications in colorectal cancer.