A computational model for tumor cell membrane tolerance and rigidy limits

Cancer is one of the leading fatal diseases in the western world and many approaches have been proposed for both its treatment and prevention. Several of these approaches are dealing with the use of chemicals or with the use of signaling molecules that interfere with critical pathways in cancer progression. Yet, there is still a lot to be learned for the biology and mechanisms of oncogenesis, tumor progression, and tumor biology in general. What that has been neglected throughout the years is the understanding of biological systems from the physical perspective and the understanding of their mechanisms from the physical point of view. Since living systems could be considered as physical systems, there exists the possibility of examining biological phenomena under this perspective. In the present work we use computational and physical approaches to study and model the tolerance limits and mechanics of cell membranes. Our scope is to gain a better understanding of these phenomena and potentially use them for therapeutic purposes, since we are referring to tumor cells.