Cancer deaths per capita have decreased in recent years, but the improvement is attributed to prevention, not treatment. The difficulty in treating cancer may be due to its 'complexity', in the mathematical physics sense of the word. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feedback mechanisms and nonlinear behavior. Investigations of the nonlinear interactions among cells, and between cells and their environment, are crucial for developing a sufficiently detailed understanding of the system's emergent phenomenology to be able to control the behavior. In the case of cancer, controlling the system's behavior will mean the ability to treat and cure the disease. Physicists have been studying various complex, nonlinear systems for many years using a variety of techniques. These investigations have provided insights that allow physicists to make unique contributions towards the treatment of cancer.This interdisciplinary book presents recent advancements in physicists' research on cancer. The work presented in this volume uses a variety of physical, biochemical, mathematical, theoretical, and computational techniques to gain a deeper molecular and cellular understanding of the horrific disease that is cancer.

Cancer deaths per capita have decreased in recent years, but the improvement is attributed to prevention, not treatment. The difficulty in treating cancer may be due to its'complexity', in the mathematical physics sense of the word. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feedback mechanisms and nonlinear behavior. Investigations of the nonlinear interactions among cells, and between cells and their environment, are crucial for developing a sufficiently detailed understanding of the system's emergent phenomenology to be able to control the behavior. In the case of cancer, controlling the system's behavior will mean the ability to treat and cure the disease. Physicists have been studying various complex, nonlinear systems for many years using a variety of techniques. These investigations have provided insights that allow physicists to make unique contributions towards the treatment of cancer.This interdisciplinary book presents recent advancements in physicists'research on cancer. The work presented in this volume uses a variety of physical, biochemical, mathematical, theoretical, and computational techniques to gain a deeper molecular and cellular understanding of the horrific disease that is cancer.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of theoretical and experimental contributions to cancer research from different fields of physics, from biomechanics and soft-condensed matter physics to the statistical mechanics of complex systems. Reviewing these contributions and providing a sophisticated overview of the topic, this is the first book devoted to the emerging interdisciplinary field of cancer physics. Systematically integrating approaches from physics and biology, it includes topics such as cancer initiation and progression, metastasis, angiogenesis, cancer stem cells, tumor immunology, cancer cell mechanics and migration. Biological hallmarks of cancer are presented in an intuitive yet comprehensive way, providing graduate-level students and researchers in physics with a thorough introduction to this important subject. The impact of the physical mechanisms of cancer are explained through analytical and computational models, making this an essential reference for cancer biologists interested in cutting-edge quantitative tools and approaches coming from physics.

This revised second edition is improved linguistically with multiple increases of the number of figures and the inclusion of several novel chapters such as actin filaments during matrix invasion, microtubuli during migration and matrix invasion, nuclear deformability during migration and matrix invasion, and the active role of the tumor stroma in regulating cell invasion.

This book presents an Assessment of Physical Sciences and Engineering Advances in Life Sciences and Oncology (APHELION) by a panel of experts. It covers the status and trends of applying physical sciences and engineering principles to oncology research in leading laboratories and organizations in Europe and Asia. The book elaborates on the six topics identified by the panel that have the greatest potential to advance understanding and treatment of cancer, each covered by a chapter in the book. The study was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH in the US under a cooperative agreement with the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC).

Modern cancer research is a high-tech undertaking, overlapping with many fields in the physical sciences. These include nanotechnology, engineering, immunology, and bioinformatics. This book focuses on the science and technology underlying the diagnosis and treatement of cancer. The authors offer insights into technologies including radiotherapy, modelling, and drug encapsulation.

The 1st International Meeting on Applied Physics (APHYS-2003) succeeded in creating a new international forum for applied physics in Europe, with specific interest in the application of techniques, training, and culture of physics to research areas usually associated with other scientific and engineering disciplines.This book contains a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at APHYS-2003, held in Badajoz (Spain), from 15th to 18th October 2003, which included the following Plenary Lectures:* Nanobiotechnology - Interactions of Cells with Nanofeatured Surfaces and with Nanoparticles* Radiation Protection of Nuclear Workers - Ethical Issues* Chaotic Data Encryption for Optical Communications

Physics at the beginning of the twenty-first century has reached new levels of accomplishment and impact in a society and nation that are changing rapidly. Accomplishments have led us into the information age and fueled broad technological and economic development. The pace of discovery is quickening and stronger links with other fields such as the biological sciences are being developed. The intellectual reach has never been greater, and the questions being asked are more ambitious than ever before. Physics in a New Era is the final report of the NRC's six-volume decadal physics survey. The book reviews the frontiers of physics research, examines the role of physics in our society, and makes recommendations designed to strengthen physics and its ability to serve important needs such as national security, the economy, information technology, and education.

Physical oncology has the potential to revolutionize cancer research and treatment. The fundamental rationale behind this approach is that physical processes, such as transport mechanisms for drug molecules within tissue and forces exchanged by cancer cells with tissue, may play an equally important role as biological processes in influencing progression and treatment outcome. This book introduces the emerging field of physical oncology to a general audience, with a focus on recent breakthroughs that help in the design and discovery of more effective cancer treatments. It describes how novel mathematical models of physical transport processes incorporate patient tissue and imaging data routinely produced in the clinic to predict the efficacy of many cancer treatment approaches, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy. By helping to identify which therapies would be most beneficial for an individual patient, and quantifying their effects prior to actual implementation in the clinic, physical oncology allows doctors to design treatment regimens customized to each patient’s clinical needs, significantly altering the current clinical approach to cancer treatment and improving the outcomes for patients.

This is the second, completely updated edition of a comprehensive book in which many of the world’s leading lung cancer specialists discuss the recent advances in the radiation oncology of lung cancer and reflect on the latest research findings. The first three sections cover the basic science of lung cancer, clinical investigations, including histology and staging, and a wide range of fundamental treatment considerations. Current treatment strategies for small cell and non-small cell lung cancer are then explained and evaluated in detail, with due attention to novel approaches that promise further improvements in outcome. The various types of treatment-related toxicity are discussed, and quality of life studies and prognostic factors are also considered. After evaluating the latest technological and biological advances, including IMRT, IMAT, cyber knife treatment, and tomotherapy, the book concludes by thorough consideration of specific aspects of clinical research in lung cancer.