Physics of cancer spreading through epithelium

Pajic-Lijakovic, Ivana and Milivojevic, Milan and McClintock, Peter V. E. (2024) Physics of cancer spreading through epithelium. Contemporary Physics. ISSN 0010-7514 (In Press)

Text (CP paper 2024 R1 FinalAccepted)
CP_paper_2024_R1_FinalAccepted.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (1MB)

Abstract

Many cancers spread across the epithelium and physics is needed to describe the process. Cell dynamics at the normal epithelium/cancer biointerface play a crucial role in the progression of the disease. An altered arrangement of epithelial cells significantly impacts progression, so that a detailed understanding of the biological and physical mechanisms governing the interface dynamics provides a promising basis for cancer prevention. The biological mechanisms involve cell signalling and gene expression, while the physical mechanisms are associated with the interplay between physical properties such as the epithelium-cancer interfacial tension, the epithelial surface tension, and the compressive stress within the epithelium. Despite extensive in vitro research on epithelium/cancer co-cultured cell systems, the influence of these physical parameters on cell reorganization remains incomplete. This review provides an account of what is known about the physical processes involved in cell reorganization within epithelium/cancer cell clusters and the dissemination of cancer within co-cultured systems.