Therapeutic resistance: Cells persist after therapy through endocycling:
Loftus LV, Rolle LTA, Wang B, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Dysregulation of Labile Iron Predisposes Chemotherapy Resistant Cancer Cells to Ferroptosis. Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Apr 28;26(9):4193. doi: 10.3390/ijms26094193. PMID: 40362430; PMCID: PMC12072162.
Gonye AL, Orzolek L, Cherry C, Patatanian M, Loftus LV, Truskowski K, Butler G, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Polyploid cisplatin-resistant cancer cells have altered nuclear organization and epigenomic status. Neoplasia. 2026 Jan 21;72:101268. doi: 10.1016/j.neo.2025.101268. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41570447.
Truskowski K, Rolle L, Butler G, Yang ME, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Mitotic bypass and endocycling promote cancer cell survival after genotoxic chemotherapy. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Nov 4:2025.11.03.686258. doi: 10.1101/2025.11.03.686258. PMID: 41278999; PMCID: PMC12637530.
Li M, McCullum CA, Rolle LTA, Ni Q, Ge Z, Sun SX, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Cancer cells surviving cisplatin chemotherapy increase stress-induced OMA1 activity and mitochondrial fragmentation. Sci Rep. 2026 Jan 6;16(1):3636. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-33677-1. PMID: 41495249.
Metastasis: The Polyaneuploid cancer cell state enables metastasis:
Mallin MM, Kim N, Choudhury MI, Lee SJ, An SS, Sun SX, Konstantopoulos K, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Cells in the polyaneuploid cancer cell (PACC) state have increased metastatic potential. Clin Exp Metastasis. 2023 Aug;40(4):321-338. doi: 10.1007/s10585-023-10216-8. Epub 2023 Jun 16. PMID: 37326720; PMCID: PMC10338627.
Mallin MM, Rolle LTA, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Multiparameter flow cytometric detection and analysis of rare cells in in vivo models of cancer metastasis. Biol Methods Protoc. 2024 Apr 27;9(1):bpae026. doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpae026. PMID: 38737789; PMCID: PMC11088742.
Mallin MM, Rolle LTA, Schmidt MJ, Priyadarsini Nair S, Zurita AJ, Kuhn P, Hicks J, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Cells in the Polyaneuploid Cancer Cell State Are Prometastatic. Mol Cancer Res. 2025 Mar 3;23(3):219-235. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-24-0689. PMID: 39656186; PMCID: PMC11873732.
Eco-evolutionary models of cancer:
Brown JS, Amend SR, Austin RH, Gatenby RA, Hammarlund EU, Pienta KJ. Updating the Definition of Cancer. Mol Cancer Res. 2023 Nov 1;21(11):1142-1147. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-23-0411. PMID: 37409952; PMCID: PMC10618731.
Butler G, Baker J, Amend SR, Pienta KJ, Venditti C. No evidence for Peto's paradox in terrestrial vertebrates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 4;122(9):e2422861122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2422861122. Epub 2025 Feb 24. PMID: 39993196; PMCID: PMC11892590.
Butler G, Amend SR, Axelrod R, Venditti C, Pienta KJ. Punctuational evolution is pervasive in distal site metastatic colonization. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Apr 11:2024.04.08.588529. doi: 10.1101/2024.04.08.588529. PMID: 38645078; PMCID: PMC11030309.
Butler G, Baker J, Amend SR, Pienta KJ, Venditti C. Divergent evolutionary dynamics of benign and malignant tumors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Nov 11;122(45):e2519203122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2519203122. Epub 2025 Nov 6. PMID: 41196351; PMCID: PMC12625976.