Magnus Haughey, Imran Noorani, Charles Swanton, Paul S Mischel, Benjamin Werner
{"title":"Extrachromosomal DNA: shaping the evolutionary dynamics of cancer.","authors":"Magnus Haughey, Imran Noorani, Charles Swanton, Paul S Mischel, Benjamin Werner","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cancers are complex, diverse, and elusive, with extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) recently emerging as a crucial player in driving the evolution of about 20% of all tumors. In this review we discuss open questions concerning the evolutionary role of ecDNA in tumor development, including tumorigenesis and metastatic seeding, the mutational landscape on ecDNA, the dynamic ecDNA genotype-phenotype map, the structural evolution of ecDNA, and how knowledge of tissue-specific ecDNA evolutionary paths can be leveraged to deliver more effective clinical treatment. Looking forward, evolutionary theoretical modeling will be instrumental in advancing new research in the field, and we explore how modeling has contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary principles governing ecDNA dynamics. Ultimately, these challenges must be tackled to improve clinical stratification and create tumor- and patient-specific ecDNA-based therapies.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12313332/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Trends in cancer","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.004","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cancers are complex, diverse, and elusive, with extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) recently emerging as a crucial player in driving the evolution of about 20% of all tumors. In this review we discuss open questions concerning the evolutionary role of ecDNA in tumor development, including tumorigenesis and metastatic seeding, the mutational landscape on ecDNA, the dynamic ecDNA genotype-phenotype map, the structural evolution of ecDNA, and how knowledge of tissue-specific ecDNA evolutionary paths can be leveraged to deliver more effective clinical treatment. Looking forward, evolutionary theoretical modeling will be instrumental in advancing new research in the field, and we explore how modeling has contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary principles governing ecDNA dynamics. Ultimately, these challenges must be tackled to improve clinical stratification and create tumor- and patient-specific ecDNA-based therapies.
期刊介绍:
Trends in Cancer, a part of the Trends review journals, delivers concise and engaging expert commentary on key research topics and cutting-edge advances in cancer discovery and medicine.
Trends in Cancer serves as a unique platform for multidisciplinary information, fostering discussion and education for scientists, clinicians, policy makers, and patients & advocates.Covering various aspects, it presents opportunities, challenges, and impacts of basic, translational, and clinical findings, industry R&D, technology, innovation, ethics, and cancer policy and funding in an authoritative yet reader-friendly format.