Characterization of tumor growth dynamics is of major importance for cancer understanding. By contrast with phenomenological approaches, mechanistic modeling can facilitate disclosing underlying tumor mechanisms and lead to identification of physical factors affecting proliferation and invasive behavior. Current mathematical models are often formulated at the tissue or organ scale with the scope of a direct clinical usefulness. Consequently, these approaches remain empirical and do not allow gaining insight into the tumor properties at the scale of small cell aggregates. Here, experimental and numerical studies of the dynamics of tumor aggregates are performed to propose a physics-based mathematical model as a general framework to investigate tumor microenvironment. The quantitative data extracted from the cellular capsule technology microfluidic experiments allow a thorough quantitative comparison with in silico experiments. This dual approach demonstrates the relative impact of oxygen and external mechanical forces during the time course of tumor model progression.

肿瘤生长动力学的表征对于癌症的理解至关重要。与现象学方法相反，机制建模可以促进揭示潜在的肿瘤机制，并导致识别影响增殖和侵袭行为的物理因素。当前的数学模型通常在组织或器官规模上制定，具有直接的临床实用性。因此，这些方法仍然是经验性的，并且不允许以小细胞聚集体的规模深入了解肿瘤的性质。在这里，进行肿瘤聚集体动力学的实验和数值研究，以提出基于物理学的数学模型作为研究肿瘤微环境的一般框架。从细胞胶囊技术微流控实验中提取的定量数据可以与计算机模拟实验进行全面的定量比较。这种双重方法证明了在肿瘤模型发展的时间过程中氧气和外部机械力的相对影响。