Cancer as an Emergent Phenomenon?

Abstract

Many biological events exhibit major features of emergent phenomena in which the detailed behavior of a collective ensemble of entities or agents is not predictable from summing their individual behaviors. The relationship between the emergent phenomena of evolution, including the development of cancer cells expressing apparently “random” genetic / epigenetic events and the influence of “scale” are also not yet widely understood or well defined. Presumably this uncertainty is also subject to further influence from non-oncologic random genetic and epigenetic events. A forward or a retrogressive evolution of individual cancer cells could be viewed as subsets of emergent phenomena in which random genetic / epigenetic events can also meld with other ongoing, underlying emergent processes, contributing to unpredictable outcomes. The extent to which such an interplay may subvert attempts at cancer therapy is not presently well identified nor are conditions that might promote or retard the incidence of random responses during the process. The rare reports of what may have included occasional random reversals of established cancers is another subject of interest. Some discussion of these questions seems merited.