The physics of cancer: the role of physical interactions and mechanical forces in metastasis

By Denis Wirtz, K. Konstantopoulos, Peter C. Searson. Nature Reviews. Cancer, 2011

1,237 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Metastasis is a complex, multistep process responsible for >90% of cancer-related deaths. In addition to genetic and external environmental factors, the physical interactions of cancer cells with their microenvironment, as well as their modulation by mechanical forces, are key determinants of the metastatic process. We reconstruct the metastatic process and describe the importance of key physical and mechanical processes at each step of the cascade. The emerging insight into these physical interactions may help to solve some long-standing questions in disease progression and may lead to new approaches to developing cancer diagnostics and therapies.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e5d4cb75d57d02cac8105d3e19f8e7403aba5a22

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Citations in the corpus

In Vitro Tumor Models: Advantages, Disadvantages, Variables, and Selecting the Right Platform (2016, background): “Many avascular microfluidic devices study migration along small confined channels that are designed to mimic the quasi one-dimensional migration between fibers in the ECM (Fraley et al., 2010; Wirtz et al., 2011; Friedl et al., 2012b; Konstantopoulos et al., 2013).”
The role of mechanical forces in tumor growth and therapy (2014, neutral): “Increasing shear increases the amount of collisions of CTCs with vessel walls, but it reduces their residence time of adhesion, which could impair extravasation (71).”
Role of Extracellular Matrix in Development and Cancer Progression (2018, background): “[202] has recently provided the experimental framework for creating in-situ two-dimensional mapping of solid stress.”
Nonequilibrium physics in biology (2019, background): “It is thus of no surprise that physicists are heavily involved in understanding cancer (Ramis-Conde et al., 2009; Welter et al., 2009; Wirtz et al., 2011).”