Physical oncology: a bench-to-bedside quantitative and predictive approach

Area of Science:

• Physical oncology
• Multiscale modeling
• Cancer biology

Background:

• Current cancer models often fail to capture complex tumor behaviors and therapy responses.
• Antiangiogenic therapy can paradoxically enhance tumor invasiveness.
• A quantitative link between molecular, tissue, and patient scales is needed for outcome prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the principles and applications of physical oncology.
• To illustrate how physical oncology can explain complex cancer phenomena.
• To highlight the potential of multiscale physical models in cancer research and clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Review of physical oncology principles and existing studies.
• Analysis of how physical and biochemical events at micro-scales influence macro-scale tumor behavior.
• Discussion of integrating patient-specific multi-omics data into physical models.

Main Results:

• Physical oncology provides a framework to understand cancer as a function of underlying physical and biochemical events.
• Tumor behavior and treatment response are quantifiable functions of molecular/cellular conditions modulated by inhomogeneity.
• Oxygen transport and other physical factors influence key cellular processes like proliferation and apoptosis.

Conclusions:

• Physical oncology offers a powerful approach to complement traditional cancer research and clinical oncology.
• Multiscale physical models incorporating patient-specific data can enhance understanding of cancer behavior.
• This approach holds the potential to improve patient survival through better outcome predictions and treatment strategies.