Phosphorescence-based sensing reveals size-dependent survival and motility of metastatic prostate cancer cells in self-generated hypoxia.

Cancer cells in solid tumors experience hypoxia, a condition of low concentration, since their demand exceeds the supply from the surrounding vasculature. However, how these cells adapt to hypoxia requires further elucidation. Here, we use a transparent phosphorescent thin film to visualize the self-generated hypoxia field of prostate cancer cells and quantify local consumption rates, measured locally as the Laplacian of the field. Single-cell tracking on steep gradients revealed that larger cells exhibit higher motility and moderate migration bias toward -rich regions. Termination of hypoxia before cessation of consumption shifted cell distributions to larger sizes, whereas prolonged hypoxia induced apoptosis, producing cell populations of smaller areas post-hypoxia. Such resilience to hypoxia was absent for noncancerous fibroblasts. Our findings suggest that larger PC3 cells have enhanced metabolic fitness under hypoxia, identifying these cells as potential targets of cancer therapy.