Figure 2.

Multidisciplinary dialogues involve a prominent research path capable of controlling or “taming” the tumor cell. Throughout the vital journey of cells, they constantly encounter environmental fluctuations and adapt in response to these changes, following a path full of dynamism (A). However, the emergence of an imbalance in the ability to correct damage and maintain harmony between adjustments and fluctuations can trigger the path to carcinogenesis (tumor cell X). Thus, in the incessant cycle of chaotic multiplication characteristic of cancer, a continuous change in the biological, physical, chemical, and mathematical aspects is observed with each new tumoral generation (A*). Simultaneously, the complexity of the expanding tumor emerges as a significant challenge for the survival of the host organism, and, to face this challenge, various therapeutic strategies adopt a “death strategy” view (that is, an aggressive approach of intense attack on the tumor, an adversary to be exterminated), offering cancer new evolutionary opportunities. This is because, by opting for aggressive treatments as a routine instead of promoting the death of tumor cells, beneficial evolution can be induced for resistant and competitive cells, which accompany an “arms race” as explicit in the Red Queen hypothesis (B -tumor cell X’-, C). Thus, the outcome is an advanced tumor cell, accumulating changes that allow it to oscillate between different attractor states and interact with various genetic networks, culminating in devastating clinical outcomes, such as resistance, relapse, dormancy, metastasis, anastasis, and others (A**, tumor cell X”). Source: Adapted from Casotti et al. (30). Create with Biorender.