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Biomechanics of the Circulating Tumor Cell Microenvironment
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Biomechanics of the Circulating Tumor Cell Microenvironment

Benjamin L Krog and Michael D Henry
Advances in experimental medicine and biology, Vol.1092, pp.209-233
2018
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-95294-9_11
PMCID: PMC7304329
PMID: 30368755
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/7304329View
Open Access

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) exist in a microenvironment quite different from the solid tumor tissue microenvironment. They are detached from matrix and exposed to the immune system and hemodynamic forces leading to the conclusion that life as a CTC is "nasty, brutish, and short." While there is much evidence to support this assertion, the mechanisms underlying this are much less clear. In this chapter we will specifically focus on biomechanical influences on CTCs in the circulation and examine in detail the question of whether CTCs are mechanically fragile, a commonly held idea that is lacking in direct evidence. We will review multiple lines of evidence indicating, perhaps counterintuitively, that viable cancer cells are mechanically robust in the face of exposures to physiologic shear stresses that would be encountered by CTCs during their passage through the circulation. Finally, we present emerging evidence that malignant epithelial cells, as opposed to their benign counterparts, possess specific mechanisms that enable them to endure these mechanical stresses.
 Biomechanical Phenomena Humans Neoplastic Cells, Circulating Stress, Mechanical Tumor Microenvironment

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