Dynamics inside the cancer cell attractor reveal cell heterogeneity, limits of stability, and escape

Significance It has been proposed, based on theory of complex gene regulatory networks, that cell types, including cancer cells, represent attractor states of the network dynamics. Here, we characterize for the first time, to our knowledge, the detailed dynamics of a cancer cell attractor at single-cell resolution. The results provide quantitative knowledge on nongenetic intercellular heterogeneity and its dynamics within an isogenic cell population of cancerous cells, affording insights at a previously unidentified level of resolution between molecular pathways and macroscopic tumor behaviors. This new dimension of characterizing tumor cells might impact design of future rational cancer therapies by taking into account the dynamic robustness and high volatility of a heterogeneous cancer cell population.