Physics Of Cancer

The difficulty in treating cancer may be due to its complexity, in the mathematical physics sense of the word. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feedback mechanisms and nonlinear behavior. The nonlinear interactions among cells, and between cells and their environment are crucial for developing a sufficiently detailed understanding of the system's emergent phenomenology. In the case of cancer, controlling the system's behavior will mean the ability to treat and cure the disease. Physicists have been studying various complex, nonlinear systems for many years using theoretical, mathematical, computational, and experimental approaches. These investigations have provided insights that allow physicists to make unique contributions towards the treatment of cancer. This interdisciplinary book presents recent advancements in physicists' research on cancer. A variety of physical, biochemical, mathematical, and computational techniques as well as experimental and clinical data are used to gain a deeper molecular and cellular understanding of the horrific disease that is cancer.

This revised second edition is improved linguistically with multiple increases of the number of figures and the inclusion of several novel chapters such as actin filaments during matrix invasion, microtubuli during migration and matrix invasion, nuclear deformability during migration and matrix invasion, and the active role of the tumor stroma in regulating cell invasion.

Cancer deaths per capita have decreased in recent years, but the improvement is attributed to prevention, not treatment. The difficulty in treating cancer may be due to its 'complexity', in the mathematical physics sense of the word. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feedback mechanisms and nonlinear behavior. Investigations of the nonlinear interactions among cells, and between cells and their environment, are crucial for developing a sufficiently detailed understanding of the system's emergent phenomenology to be able to control the behavior. In the case of cancer, controlling the system's behavior will mean the ability to treat and cure the disease. Physicists have been studying various complex, nonlinear systems for many years using a variety of techniques. These investigations have provided insights that allow physicists to make unique contributions towards the treatment of cancer.This interdisciplinary book presents recent advancements in physicists' research on cancer. The work presented in this volume uses a variety of physical, biochemical, mathematical, theoretical, and computational techniques to gain a deeper molecular and cellular understanding of the horrific disease that is cancer.

An introduction to the emerging field of cancer physics, integrating cancer biology with approaches from theoretical and applied physics.

"There is something special about cancer compared to other diseases. It is a horrific disease that has defied attempts to find a reliable cure. Life spans after diagnosis have increased, but the mortality rate has remained about the same even after 40 years of extensive research. Cancer provides a major scientific challenge. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feed-back mechanisms and non-linear behavior. In recent years, physicists have become involved in studying cancer, with the ultimate aim of finding a cure. Physicists approach a problem with unique experimental, theoretical, and computational skills and perspectives. This book will be comprised of chapters written by physicists from all over the world who perform research on cancer. They will describe their research and summarize their results."--Provided by the publisher.

Modern cancer research is a high-tech undertaking, overlapping with many fields in the physical sciences. These include nanotechnology, engineering, immunology, and bioinformatics. This book focuses on the science and technology underlying the diagnosis and treatement of cancer. The authors offer insights into technologies including radiotherapy, modelling, and drug encapsulation.