Lessons from an Aggressive Cancer: Evolutionary Dynamics in Esophageal Carcinoma

¹Department of Pathology, Division of Oncogenomics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany; and ²Department of General, Visceral, and Pediatric Surgery, Heinrich-Heine-University and University Hospital, Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: christoph.klein{at}klinik.uni-regensburg.de.

	Abstract

Rapid progression to metastatic disease and an intrinsic resistance to any type of systemic therapy are hallmarks of aggressive solid cancers. The molecular basis for this phenotype is not clear. A detailed study of the somatic progression from local to early systemic esophageal cancer revealed rapid diversification of cancer cells isolated from various sites, but also evidence for early clonal expansion. These findings have implications for diagnostic pathology and therapeutic decision making. [Cancer Res 2009;69(13):5285–8]