The malignancy potential is correlated with the mechanical deformability of the cancer cells. However, mechanical tests for clinical applications are limited. We present here a Triangular Correlation (TrC) between cell deformability, phagocytic capacity, and cancer aggressiveness, suggesting that phagocytic measurements can be a mechanical surrogate marker of malignancy. The TrC was proved in human prostate cancer cells with different malignancy potential, and in human bladder cancer and melanoma cells that were sorted into subpopulations based solely on their phagocytic capacity. The more phagocytic subpopulations showed elevated aggressiveness ex vivo and in vivo. The uptake potential was preserved, and differences in gene expression and in epigenetic signature were detected. In all cases, enhanced phagocytic and aggressiveness phenotypes were correlated with greater cell deformability and predicted by a computational model. Our multidisciplinary study provides the proof of concept that phagocytic measurements can be applied for cancer diagnostics and precision medicine.

中文翻译：

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癌症侵袭性，细胞摄取能力和细胞变形能力之间的三角相关性（TrC）。

恶性潜能与癌细胞的机械变形能力有关。然而，用于临床应用的机械测试是有限的。我们在这里介绍细胞变形能力，吞噬能力和癌症侵略性之间的三角相关性（TrC），这表明吞噬性测量可以是恶性肿瘤的机械替代指标。TrC已在具有不同恶性潜能的人前列腺癌细胞，人膀胱癌和黑色素瘤细胞中得到证实，这些细胞仅根据吞噬能力被分类为亚群。吞噬能力更高的亚群在体外和体内显示出较高的侵略性。保持摄取潜力，并检测基因表达和表观遗传学特征的差异。在所有情况下，增强的吞噬和攻击性表型与更大的细胞变形能力相关，并通过计算模型预测。我们的多学科研究提供了吞噬测量可用于癌症诊断和精密医学的概念证明。