TITLE:
Exploring Biocomplexity in Cancer: A Comprehensive Review
AUTHORS:
Andras Szasz, Gyula Peter Szigeti
KEYWORDS:
Complexity, Networks, Small-World, Genetic Mutations, Self-Organizing, Self-Symmetry, Energetic Balance, Entropy, Nash Equilibrium, Games, Evolution, Cancer, Therapy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Biophysics,
Vol.14 No.2,
April
25,
2024
ABSTRACT: Living objects have complex internal and external interactions. The complexity is regulated and controlled by homeostasis, which is the balance of multiple opposing influences. The environmental effects finally guide the self-organized structure. The living systems are open, dynamic structures performing random, stationary, stochastic, self-organizing processes. The self-organizing procedure is defined by the spatial-temporal fractal structure, which is self-similar both in space and time. The system’s complexity appears in its energetics, which tries the most efficient use of the available energies; for that, it organizes various well-connected networks. The controller of environmental relations is the Darwinian selection on a long-time scale. The energetics optimize the healthy processes tuned to the highest efficacy and minimal loss (minimalization of the entropy production). The organism is built up by morphogenetic rules and develops various networks from the genetic level to the organism. The networks have intensive crosstalk and form a balance in the Nash equilibrium, which is the homeostatic state in healthy conditions. Homeostasis may be described as a Nash equilibrium, which ensures energy distribution in a “democratic” way regarding the functions of the parts in the complete system. Cancer radically changes the network system in the organism. Cancer is a network disease. Deviation from healthy networking appears at every level, from genetic (molecular) to cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. The strong proliferation of malignant tissue is the origin of most of the life-threatening processes. The weak side of cancer development is the change of complex information networking in the system, being vulnerable to immune attacks. Cancer cells are masters of adaptation and evade immune surveillance. This hiding process can be broken by electromagnetic nonionizing radiation, for which the malignant structure has no adaptation strategy. Our objective is to review the different sides of living complexity and use the knowledge to fight against cancer.