Main description:

Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of theoretical and experimental contributions to cancer research from different fields of physics, from biomechanics and soft-condensed matter physics to the statistical mechanics of complex systems. Reviewing these contributions and providing a sophisticated overview of the topic, this is the first book devoted to the emerging interdisciplinary field of cancer physics. Systematically integrating approaches from physics and biology, it includes topics such as cancer initiation and progression, metastasis, angiogenesis, cancer stem cells, tumor immunology, cancer cell mechanics and migration. Biological hallmarks of cancer are presented in an intuitive yet comprehensive way, providing graduate-level students and researchers in physics with a thorough introduction to this important subject. The impact of the physical mechanisms of cancer are explained through analytical and computational models, making this an essential reference for cancer biologists interested in cutting-edge quantitative tools and approaches coming from physics.

Contents:

Preface; 1. Introduction to the cell; 2. The biology of cancer; 3. A modeling toolbox for cancer growth; 4. Vascular hydrodynamics and tumor angiogenesis; 5. Cancer stem cells and the population dynamics of tumors; 6. Biomechanics of cancer; 7. Cancer cell migration; 8. Chromosome and chromatin dynamics in cancer; 9. Control of tumor growth by the immune system; 10. Pharmacological approaches: old and new; 11. Outlook on the physics of cancer: a new interdisciplinary area; References; Index.