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Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access published online on January 8, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, doi:10.1093/jnci/djm315
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© Oxford University Press 2008.

NEWS

Comparing Invasive Species to Metastatic Cancers Inspires New Insights for Modelers

Mike Martin

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

They both invade. They both spread. They both grow uncontrollably. So maybe it was only a matter of time before scientists discovered a link between metastatic tumors and invasive species.

Using computer models, high-tech imagery, and aerial photographs that span 40 years in the life of a forest, an international research team has identified a distinct geometrical "signature" that an invasive tree—the English elm—shares with glioma, an aggressive brain tumor. They call their discovery a window on the "ecology of cancer."

"This is the first work demonstrating that metastasis is indeed an ecological process," said Argentina National University–Cordoba agricultural biologist and principal investigator Diana Marco, Ph.D.

Uncontrolled cell growth shares a unique "spatiotemporal signature" with species invasion, the researchers discovered. That signature includes a distinct geometry along growth boundaries, a unique patchwork growth pattern, and a comparable distribution of seeds and cells. It indicates that "early spread of individual cancer . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Cells and Seeds

Orderly Disorder

New Dimension

Telltale Signature

Invader Versus Invaded

Out of the Woods


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