Cell growth simulations predicting polyclonal origins for 'monoclonal' tumors

G. W. Moore, J. J. Berman

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    6 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Studies showing the clonal identity of various tumors have led to the belief that most tumors originate from a single cell. It is shown by Monte Carlo computer simulations that monoclonality can evolve from minor differences either in cell cycle time or in the probability of cell death in a polyclonal 'founder' population. If cells divide continuously without cell death (exponential clonal growth), a triclonal population with three starting cells (cell cycle times 0.9 days, 1 day and 1.1 days) converges to near-monoclonality in 100 generations. For cell cycle times of 0.9 days, 1.1 days and 1.1 days, and cell death probabilities of 0.45 and 0.46, populations tend toward monoclonality while the tumor is still small (<3 mm3).

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)113-119
    Number of pages7
    JournalCancer Letters
    Volume60
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1991

    Keywords

    • cell death
    • monoclonal
    • Monte Carlo
    • polyclonal
    • tumor origin

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Cancer Research
    • Molecular Biology
    • Oncology

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