Investigating the hallmarks of cancer using xCELLigence system

Early hopes of finding a therapeutic “magic bullet” capable of eradicating all types of cancer were progressively replaced with the sobering realization that cancer consists of >100 distinct diseases that manifest in ~200 cell types with diverse genetic/mutational etiologies. For the clinician this complexity is compounded by the fact that a single disease phenotype can result from multiple genotypes, each of which requires a unique approach to treatment (estrogen dependent/independent breast cancer being a primary example). Citing that the cancer scientific literature had already become “complex almost beyond measure,” in  2000 Robert Weinberg and Douglas Hanahan stated a belief that “the complexities of the disease, described in the laboratory and the clinic, will become understandable in terms of a small number of underlying principles.”In this now famous paper they suggested that distillation of decades of research reveals “a small number of molecular,biochemical, and cellular traits – acquired capabilities – shared by most and perhaps all types of human cancer.”

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