Pathogens and cancers are pervasive health risks in the human population. I argue that if we are to better understand disease and its treatment, then we need to take an ecological perspective of disease itself. I generalize and extend an emerging framework that views disease as an ecosystem and many of its components as interacting in a community. I develop the framework for biological etiological agents (BEAs) that multiply within humans-focusing on bacterial pathogens and cancers-but the framework could be extended to include other host and parasite species. I begin by describing why we need an ecosystem framework to understand disease, and the main components and interactions in bacterial and cancer disease ecosystems. Focus is then given to the BEA and how it may proceed through characteristic states, including emergence, growth, spread and regression. The framework is then applied to therapeutic interventions. Central to success is preventing BEA evasion, the best known being antibiotic resistance and chemotherapeutic resistance in cancers. With risks of evasion in mind, I propose six measures that either introduce new components into the disease ecosystem or manipulate existing ones. An ecosystem framework promises to enhance our understanding of disease, BEA and host (co)evolution, and how we can improve therapeutic outcomes.

中文翻译：

---

用于了解和治疗疾病的生态系统框架。

病原体和癌症是人类普遍的健康风险。我认为，如果我们想更好地了解疾病及其治疗方法，那么我们就需要从疾病的生态角度出发。我概括并扩展了一个新兴的框架，该框架将疾病视为生态系统，并将其许多组成部分视为在社区中相互作用。我开发了在人类内繁殖的生物病原体（BEA）框架，重点是细菌病原体和癌症，但是该框架可以扩展到包括其他宿主和寄生虫物种。首先，我描述了为什么我们需要一个生态系统框架来理解疾病，以及细菌和癌症疾病生态系统中的主要组成部分和相互作用。然后重点介绍了BEA以及其如何通过特征状态（包括出现，增长，传播和回归。然后将该框架应用于治疗干预。成功的关键是防止BEA逃逸，其中最著名的是癌症中的抗生素耐药性和化学治疗耐药性。考虑到规避风险，我提出了六种措施，这些措施要么将新组件引入疾病生态系统，要么对现有组件进行操作。生态系统框架有望增进我们对疾病，BEA和宿主（共同）进化以及我们如何改善治疗效果的了解。