The research findings suggest that learning to harness the pressure of physical force on a tumor could open an entirely new role for treatments known as mechanotherapies in the fight against cancer.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Irish Senthilkumar, postdoctoral researcher and a lead on the study, said, “Cancer cells are known to bypass many of the body’s normal growth controls, but tumors still respond to mechanical pressure. Until now we haven’t understood why this happens, so our aim was to investigate the underlying mechanics at a cellular level.”