Morphological Instability and Cancer Invasion: A 'Splashing Water Drop' Analogy

Abstract

We present an analogy between two unrelated instabilities. One is caused by the impact of a drop of water on a solid surface while the other one concerns a tumor that develops invasive cellular branches into the surrounding host tissue. In spite of the apparent abstractness of the idea, it yields a very practical result, i.e. an index that predicts tumor invasion based on a few measurable parameters. We discuss its application in the context of experimental data and suggest potential clinical implications.