Steele Laboratories, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Science. 2020 Oct 30;370(6516). doi: 10.1126/science.aaz0868.
The role of the physical microenvironment in tumor development, progression, metastasis, and treatment is gaining appreciation. The emerging multidisciplinary field of the physical sciences of cancer is now embraced by engineers, physicists, cell biologists, developmental biologists, tumor biologists, and oncologists attempting to understand how physical parameters and processes affect cancer progression and treatment. Discoveries in this field are starting to be translated into new therapeutic strategies for cancer. In this Review, we propose four physical traits of tumors that contribute to tumor progression and treatment resistance: (i) elevated solid stresses (compression and tension), (ii) elevated interstitial fluid pressure, (iii) altered material properties (for example, increased tissue stiffness, which historically has been used to detect cancer by palpation), and (iv) altered physical microarchitecture. After defining these physical traits, we discuss their causes, consequences, and how they complement the biological hallmarks of cancer.
肿瘤发展、进展、转移和治疗中物理微观环境的作用正逐渐受到重视。癌症的物理科学这一新兴多学科领域现在得到了工程师、物理学家、细胞生物学家、发育生物学家、肿瘤生物学家和肿瘤学家的认可，他们试图了解物理参数和过程如何影响癌症的进展和治疗。该领域的发现开始被转化为癌症的新治疗策略。在这篇综述中，我们提出了促进肿瘤进展和治疗抵抗的肿瘤的四个物理特征：（i）固体压力升高（压缩和张力），（ii）细胞外间质压力升高，（iii）物质特性改变（例如，组织硬度增加，这在历史上曾被用于触诊检测癌症），以及（iv）物理微结构改变。在定义了这些物理特征之后，我们讨论了它们的原因、后果，以及它们如何补充癌症的生物学特征。
