Pancreatic cancer: a mechanobiology approach

Abstract

Despite many years of effort from cancer biologists and clinical oncologists, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a thoroughly recalcitrant disease, resisting both conventional forms of cancer treatment and radical innovative therapies. Perhaps driving the lack of success in PDAC is the underappreciation of the primary hallmark of the tumour: a fibrotic extracellular matrix (ECM) that composes a majority of the highly rigid solid carcinoma. In recent years we have come to understand that the homeostasis of ECM mechanics is pivotal for the homeostasis of cells and the progression or initiation of a malignant phenotype. This can be understood by way of mechanobiology, a field that attempts to understand how physical forces like ECM stiffness alter cell behaviour. In this review, we provide an overview of our understanding of PDAC from this perspective and the recent advances in biophysics and engineering that allow for new tools with which to investigate the mechanobiology of PDAC.