Advances on Recognizing and Managing Tumor Heterogeneity

Tumor heterogeneity is one of the characteristics of malignant tumors, which can cause differences in tumor growth rate, invasion, migration, drug sensitivity and prognosis. Discoveries and development upon on tumor-driver genes and targeted therapy paved the way on dealing with cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, the existence of tumor heterogeneity makes malignant tumor more hardly to overcome. It is generally present and far more complicated during the process of cancer recurrence, development and evolution. Thus, it has becoming key areas in precision medicine regarding to designing optimal therapeutic approaches targeting the mechanisms and phenotypes of tumor heterogeneity, based on novel detecting techniques and new concepts and theory. This review summarized the current references on tumor heterogeneity, in order to better understand the function and mechanisms, and eventually manage tumor heterogeneity through various methods.