In the past decades, cancer has been treated as an isolated malignant cell, while the extracellular matrix, which plays a major role in cancer cell growth and migration, has been greatly neglected. Cancers have great molecular genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity and vary greatly in their sensitivity to therapy, while some have primary drug resistance mechanisms. As tumors grow, energy supply exceeds demand, leading to anaerobic metabolism and the formation of an acidic microenvironment under hypoxic conditions, which is altered with immune escape; increased oxygen ion radicals, leading to DNA damage; DNA damage in turn causes cell cycle checkpoint defects, chromosome instability and aneuploidy alterations. All these metabolic abnormalities cause unrestricted proliferation of cancer cells and reduced or absent therapeutic response. Cancer has the following ten characteristics: 1. self-sufficient growth/proliferation signals; 2. resistance to growth inhibitory signals; 3. blocked apoptosis; 4. unlimited replication potential; 5. sustained angiogenesis; 6. infiltration/metastatic properties; 7. immune escape; 8. stress response; 9. stromal pro-tumor effects; 10. inflammatory mediators pro-tumor proliferation.