Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2015) 130: 224
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15224-0

Review

The role of pressure in cancer growth

¹ Center for Complexity & Biosystems, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
² Department of Physics, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
³ Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Turin, Italy
⁴ Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Paris, France
⁵ Institut Universitaire de Cancérologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Pierre et Marie-Curie Paris 6, Paris, France
⁶ CNR - IENI, Milan, Italy
⁷ Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
⁸ Department of Bioscience, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

^* e-mail: caterina.laporta@unimi.it

Received: 20 July 2015
Revised: 13 September 2015
Accepted: 23 September 2015
Published online: 4 November 2015

Abstract

The response to external mechanical forces is increasingly seen as a crucial aspect of cancer growth and a topic where the contribution of physics ideas and methods is important. Understanding if tumor progression towards increased malignancy reflects the geometry and mechanics of the microenvironment is an important issue still to be fully explored. In order to grow, tumors have to overcome the mechanical resistance posed by the tissues in which they originate, while cancer cells involved in metastasis are often subject to fluid pressure. Here we review the recent literature describing the role of solid and fluid pressure on tumor growth and progression. We discuss a variety of in vitro experiments as well as computational models used to interpret them. We conclude discussing future perspectives.