Prof. Josef A. Käs, Universität Leipzig, spricht am Montag, den 14. Juli 2025, 17.00 Uhr s.t., im HS 04 (F.10.01) über das Thema "Does Oncology Need The Physics of Cancer?"

Abstract

Despite that pathological genetic changes are the origin of cancer, gene expression only contains 50% of the information to fully understand the disease. 90% of all cancer deaths can be attributed to metastasis. 

Collective, collaborative processes in the metastatic cascade that are emergent are optimally described by tissue and cell mechanics based on the basic requirement that cancer cells have to squeeze through dense tissues. In solid tumors cancer cells are packed at volume fraction one and have no space to move. The onset of cancer cell motility in primary tumors as a prerequisite of metastasis requires a shapeinduced unjamming transition. Collectively elongated cells can pass by each other by performing topological T1-transitions. The interactions of these motile cancer cells with the surrounding fiber bundles of the extracellular matrix (ECM) lead to selforganization. Actively moving streams of cancer cell clusters are embedded in the fibers of the ECM and can be described as active nematic droplets embedded in a passive nematic scaffold. The resulting size distribution and shape of the cancer cell clusters follow specific scaling laws. Elongated cell und nucleus shape (CeNuS) as well as the distribution of topological defects in the ECM are measures of cancer cell activity and can serve as potential prognostic tumor markers in the clinic. First retrospective clinical trials indicate that we can improve diagnosis by more than 25%. These two markers define a new approach in digital histolgy:

Pathomechanics that connects tumor dynamics and geometry. Next we will use physics-guided neuronal networks to predict the interplay between cell proliferation, motility and confining ECM. Ultimately, this may lead to a novel types of therapy, so called migrastatics therapies that inhibit cancer cell motility.