Physics of Cancer: Mechanobiology Drives Cancer Progression
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 41
Special Issue Editor
Interests: focal adhesions; vinculin; Rac1; integrins; collagen; cell migration
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The physics of cancer represent an interdisciplinary research area investigating how mechanical forces and changes in the physical properties of cancer cells and their environment favor the progression of cancer. The field of cancer physics incorporates principles from biology, physiology, physics, engineering, and material science to understand how mechanical signals in cancer are sensed, transmitted, and integrated into biological processes, leading to malignant progression. The field of the physics of cancer is currently at a critical crossroads, with the potential to develop from a purely research-orientated field into a field with practical applications in cancer diagnosis and cancer therapy. The high stiffness of solid tumors and high interstitial pressure with hypoxia and acidosis represent a research focus in the physics of cancer, as they directly induce the mechanical activation of biochemical signaling pathways that promote the cell cycle, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and cell motility/invasiveness. The aggressiveness of cancer is correlated with increased deformability in cancer cells, which may also control the ability of cancer cells to engulf other cells during tumor microevolution or to absorb drugs and thus respond to therapy. These findings revolve around the ability of cells to sense forces and physically explore their surroundings (mechanosensing) and to pass this message on to the cell nucleus (mechanotransduction). The intricacies of cellular mechanotransduction are far from being completely elucidated, but it has been proposed that specific transcription factors and membrane receptors play a central role.
Prof. Dr. Claudia Tanja Mierke
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- migration and invasion of cancer cells
- cytomechanics and adhesive properties
- cellular mechanotransduction
- mechanical signals
- viscoelasticity and stiffness
- physics of cancer
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