fig1

Figure 1. The increasing knowledge in the field of Cancer biology led to an outstanding improvement of our understanding of the pathology in the last 20 years but the recent and unprecedented accumulation of data makes it now very difficult to prioritize and stratify this overwhelming set of information. From an initial “cell-centered” perspective, rapidly enriched thanks to our comprehension of the role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer promotion and progression, we now reached a perspective in which ecological interactions between tumor cells and their surrounding environment design the multi-sites specific tumor landscape. Epigenetic and genetic heterogeneity of either primary or distant metastatic tumors is now the hallmark of advanced diseases in which cell and/or tumor plasticity become the rule. This makes development of new anticancer drugs shallow because of the constant emergence of resistance clones. In front of such a moving “wall of complication” and in a context of limited resources, the plasticity of the disease, and the complexity it generates, should challenge our certitudes and lead to a new perspective in terms of cancer research and care where biologists and non-biologists collaborate to critically assess scientific assumptions and to foster dialogue between sciences, as well as between science and society