Abstract
The physical characteristics of tumours are intricately linked to the tumour phenotype and difficulties during treatment. Many factors contribute to the increased stiffness of tumours; from increased matrix deposition, matrix remodelling by forces from cancer cells and stromal fibroblasts, matrix crosslinking, increased cellularity, and the build-up of both solid and interstitial pressure. Increased stiffness then feeds back to increase tumour invasiveness and reduce therapy efficacy. Increased understanding of this interplay is offering new therapeutic avenues.
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Change history
10 July 2018
In the version of this Review originally published, owing to a technical error the text ‘However, given the multitude’ was incorrectly introduced after the sentence beginning ‘The transition to a mesenchymal state is characterized...’. This has now been amended in all online versions of the Review.
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Acknowledgements
We thank lab members for critical reading. E.S. is funded by the Francis Crick Institute, which receives itscore funding from Cancer Research UK (FC001144), the UK Medical Research Council (FC001144), andthe Wellcome Trust (FC001144). H.M. is funded by CIHR fellowship MFE-146796.
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Mohammadi, H., Sahai, E. Mechanisms and impact of altered tumour mechanics. Nat Cell Biol 20, 766–774 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-018-0131-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-018-0131-2
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