© 2003 by Oxford University Press
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 95, No. 10, 704-705,
May 21, 2003
© 2003 Oxford University Press
NEWS |
Researchers Suggest That Universal ‘Law’ Governs Tumor Growth
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Modeling the growth and development of tumors with specialized software, mathematics, and biologic data is a burgeoning area of cancer research. Computers also use mathematical models to account for blood vessel growth, metastasis, and tumor type to generate complex 3-dimensional images of rapidly growing cancers. Using such techniques, researchers have extensively modeled brain, vulvar, and mammary tumors.
Biological scientists seeking to model nature have increasingly turned to "fractals"—jagged geometrical arrays that never simplify or smooth out, no matter how close you look at them. Snowflakes, coastlines, falling rain, and disease transmission in large populations all exhibit fractal complexity.
Fractals and tumor modeling have recently merged in a simple and ingenious "universal growth law." Originally formulated for normal organisms, this growth law may also apply to benign and metastatic tumors.
Such a theorem could have "far-reaching implications concerning the mechanism of tumor metastasis and recurrence, cell turnover,
The Elegant Universal
Tumor Growth
Following the Curve
Debating the Merits
Apples and Oranges?
Proposed Amendments