title: Metabolic scaling in solid tumours.
abstract: Tumour metabolism is an outstanding topic of cancer research, as it determines the growth rate and the global activity of tumours. Recently, by combining the diffusion of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolites in the extracellular environment, and the internal motions that mix live and dead cells, we derived a growth law of solid tumours which is linked to parameters at the cellular level. Here we use this growth law to obtain a metabolic scaling law for solid tumours, which is obeyed by tumours of different histotypes both in vitro and in vivo, and we display its relation with the fractal dimension of the distribution of live cells in the tumour mass. The scaling behaviour is related to measurable parameters, with potential applications in the clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. milotti@units.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Milotti
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vyshemirsky
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sega
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stella
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chignola
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D018874:Spheroids, Cellular; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose