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Cancer prevention as biomodulation: targeting the initiating stimulus and secondary adaptations
Author(s) -
Furth Priscilla A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06736.x
Subject(s) - carcinogenesis , cancer cell , stimulus (psychology) , cancer , biology , dysplasia , cancer research , hyperplasia , carcinoma in situ , neuroscience , medicine , pathology , genetics , psychology , psychotherapist
In a medical sense, biomodulation could be considered a biochemical or cellular response to a disease or therapeutic stimulus. In cancer pathophysiology, the initial oncogenic stimulus leads to cellular and biochemical changes that allow cells, tissue, and organism to accommodate and accept the oncogenic insult. In epithelial cell cancer development, the process of carcinogenesis is frequently characterized by sequential cellular and biochemical adaptations as cells transition through hyperplasia, dysplasia, atypical dysplasia, carcinoma in situ , and invasive cancer. In some cases, the adaptations may persist after the initial oncogenic stimulus is gone in a type of “hit‐and‐run” oncogenesis. These pathophysiological changes may interfere with cancer prevention therapies targeted solely to the initial oncogenic insult, perhaps contributing to resistance development. Characterization of these accommodating adaptations could provide insight for the development of cancer preventive regimens that might more effectively biomodulate preneoplastic cells toward a more normal state.