Nature Sub-Journal: New Insights into Tumor Biology

In order to grow in healthy tissue, the tumor must replace the surrounding tissue

Dr Thomas Fuhs, a physicist from the Department of Soft Matter Physics at the University of Leipzig, who is the lead author of the study, explains: "Samples of breast and cervical tumors showed a larger spectrum of mechanical properties, which prompted cancer cells to develop towards softer cells, although the entire tumor is still a solid mass

The cluster of cancer cells in the tumor forms a new state of matter in which only a few solid islands of hard cells in the fluid environment of soft cells are sufficient for the tissue to behave as mechanically stable solid rather than liquid, although most moving soft cancer cells are mobile

"In breast tumors, the softened cells actually form a structure that is harder than the original tissue, which is just an obvious contradiction

"Our findings provide important new insights into

Rigid tumours contain soft cancer cells