What does it mean if a tumor is heterogeneous?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tumour heterogeneity describes the observation that different tumour cells can show distinct morphological and phenotypic profiles, including cellular morphology, gene expression, metabolism, motility, proliferation, and metastatic potential.
Why are cancer cells heterogeneous?
Phenotypic and functional heterogeneity arise among cancer cells within the same tumor as a consequence of genetic change, environmental differences, and reversible changes in cellular properties. Some cancers also contain a hierarchy in which tumorigenic cancer stem cells differentiate into non-tumorigenic progeny.
What does heterogeneous cell mean?
Heterogeneity is observed for essentially all dimensions of single cell measurements at high resolution. Some well-understood dimensions are routinely used to sort populations into mixtures of cells in distinct and meaningful biological states, such as defined by distinct cell cycle stages or cell types.
What causes Tumour heterogeneity?
To a substantial extent, this heterogeneity might be attributed to morphological and epigenetic plasticity, but there is also strong evidence for the co-existence of genetically divergent tumor cell clones within tumors.
Are heterogeneous masses cancerous?
Cancer is a dynamic disease. During the course of disease, cancers generally become more heterogeneous. As a result of this heterogeneity, the bulk tumour might include a diverse collection of cells harbouring distinct molecular signatures with differential levels of sensitivity to treatment.
Can benign Tumours be heterogeneous?
Benign tumors were found to have less intra-tumoral heterogeneity (overall 8%) than malignant tumors (overall 23%), with the highest frequencies for chromosome 1p36 in the benign tumors (17%) and 1p13 and 3q24 in malignant tumors (both 38%).
Are cancer tumors heterogeneous?
Can a benign tumor be heterogeneous?
What does heterogeneous mean in medical terms?
Heterogeneous refers to a structure with dissimilar components or elements, appearing irregular or variegated. For example, a dermoid cyst has heterogeneous attenuation on CT. It is the antonym for homogeneous, meaning a structure with similar components.
What does heterogeneous mass mean?
What is a heterogeneous population?
A heterogeneous population or sample is one where every member has a different value for the characteristic you’re interested in. For example, if everyone in your group varied between 4’3″ and 7’6″ tall, they would be heterogeneous for height.
Are malignant tumors heterogeneous or homogeneous?
Introduction. Cancer is a heterogeneous disease. Practically from the moment pathologists first looked at human cancers under the microscope, they saw that differing histologic appearances could define distinct subtypes of cancers from the same primary site of origin.
Why is there heterogeneity in the tumour population?
A minimal level of intra-tumour heterogeneity is a simple consequence of the imperfection of DNA replication: whenever a cell (normal or cancerous) divides, a few mutations are acquired —leading to a diverse population of cancer cells. The heterogeneity of cancer cells introduces significant challenges in designing effective treatment strategies.
Can a biopsy of a heterogeneous cancer be missed?
However, if doctors are dealing with a highly heterogeneous cancer, the tiny fraction of cells in the biopsy may not be representative of the entire tumor mass — which means important disease features might be missed.
What is tumor heterogeneity at Memorial Sloan Kettering?
At Memorial Sloan Kettering and at other research centers around the world, the push is on to characterize the molecular variations between tumors — known as inter-tumor heterogeneity — and offer individualized treatments to more patients. That alone is a massive task.
How does the microenvironment contribute to tumour expansion?
The tumor microenvironment may also contribute to tumour expansion, as it is capable of altering the selective pressures that the tumour cells are exposed to. Multiple types of heterogeneity have been observed between tumour cells, stemming from both genetic and non-genetic variability.