Communication—Evolution—Pathophysiology: An Endogenous Conjunction—Instead of an Introduction

Abstract

The communicative expression of participators in tumor systems, for example, different cell compartments, pathways, oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, etc., results in the constitution of tumor-immanent normative notions, i.e. tumor-associated immune response, tumor metabolism, etc., and their respective ways of rationalization. The orientation towards more than one read-out ‘system’ for conceiving rationalizations of tumor-immanent normative notions allows the exemplary investigation of central questions of communication influenced by systems-immanent constraints. Communication processes concertedly express themselves in evolution histories, outcome reports, medical imaging, identification, and quantification of tumor-associated structures and functions, and—last but not least—in the situatively evaluated communicative expression of tumor systems participators. The central task of the current book is to critically scrutinize the automatic transfer of communicative expression—associated with a detectable tumor systems participator—from one tumor system to another. The formal-pragmatic communication theory and the evolution theory shall help find answers to the following critical questions: When can an identical communicative expression of systems participators within different histological or molecular-genetic tumor types (evolutionary preserved communicative expression) be assumed, and which communicative circumstances are able to alter the communicative expression of identical systems participators in a therapy-relevant manner? Answers to these two questions are important because they may contribute to bridging medical theory and therapeutic practice. Such bridging efforts are embedded in an ethical framework, because therapeutical consequences may be delineated. Evolution-adjusted tumor pathophysiology presents the situatively evaluated constitution of rationalization processes for tumor-promoting normative notions, and, thus, a novel therapeutically accessible level for overcoming cytogenetically and molecular-genetically based tumor heterogeneity.