Table 1 functional relationships of superorganisms and solid neoplasms
From: Understanding tumor heterogeneity as functional compartments - superorganisms revisited
Feature | Superorganism | Solid neoplasm |
|---|---|---|
Sociobiological aspect | Sociogenesis: growth and development of the colony | Tumorigenesis: growth and development of the tumor |
Reproduction and self-renewal | Queen (foundress) | Tumor stem cells (TSCs) |
Specialization for housekeeping work | Worker caste (non-reproductive) | Non-TSC (progeny = limited proliferation, no tumor-initiation ability) |
Protection from intruders | Specialized defensive castes: alarm-defense communication, colony recognition labels, camouflage and pheromone repellants | Secretion of anergy inducing cytokines Downregulation of major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) |
Communication and interaction among colony members | Pheromones, visual, auditory and haptic signals | Paracrine hormone and cytokine communication, direct cell-cell contact |
Shelter and microclimate control | Nest construction | Induction of fibrosis High intratumoral hydrostatic pressure |
Habitat | Ecosystem | Organism |
Cargo flux and circulatory system | "Ant highways" | (Neo)-angiogenesis Angiogenic mimicry |
Driving force for adaptation | Natural selection | Intercellular competition and selection, immunoediting and genetic instability |
Multi-colony-formation (inter-group-competition) | Supercolonies Budding and fusion of individual colonies with the supercolony | Symmetric cell division and formation of new TSCs Cancer self-seeding |
Colony founding | Queen flight | Metastasis of TSCs |