Abstract:
The effectiveness of the synergеtic approach is based on the ability to transfer the results of one science (e.g. physics), being more “simple” and accurate due to omitting many details that can be considered inessential, to objects of other science (e.g. medicine) which are much more complicated and therefore can be described rather qualitatively than quantitatively. This presentation aims to use the synergetic isomorphism (similarity) between carcinogenesis and nucleation (new phase formation) and to suggest a new possible mechanism to prevent the growth of malignant tumors.
The fundamental results of the nucleation theory and its medical application to the problem of cancer therapy give us a possibility to formulate the necessary conditions which could help to prevent the formation and uncontrollable growth of pathological tumors: (a) the critical size of new phase nuclei, which grow into a malignant tumor, is directly proportional to the coefficient of surface tension; (b) the magnitude of the nucleation barrier, which should be overcome for the emergence of capable embryos and the further growth of such supercritical nuclei, is directly proportional to the cube of the coefficient of surface tension; (c) if the size of a new phase nucleus is less than its critical size, then an energetically favorable process is to further reduce the size, i.e. such subcritical nuclei are spontaneously decreasing their sizes. Thus, such an interdisciplinary dialogue between medicine and physics allows us to formulate the hypothesis of preventing the process of tumor’s growth by using appropriate surface-inactive substances, which increase the surface tension coefficient.
The confirmation of theoretical consequences based on the above-mentioned hypothesis requires undoubtedly further experimental studies and careful selection of effective non-toxic surface-inactive substances. At the same time, we would like to believe that an attractive idea of synergetic isomorphism of similar phenomena in open non-equilibrium systems of different nature, which has already proved its effectiveness in a large number of studies, will be useful in cancer therapy for a deeper understanding the carcinogenesis processes and preventing the cancer tumors formation.
Biography:
Prof. Alexander V. Chalyi currently works at the Department of Medical and Biological Physics and Informatics, Bogomolets National Medical University (Kyiv, Ukraine), being Head of Department. Alexander does research in Condensed Matter Physics, Biophysics and Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Medical Physics, Synergetics, Phase transitions and critical phenomena, Neutron Optics. His current projects are ‘Diffusion anomalies in nanoscale systems and sypercooled water’, ‘Surface tension in bulk and bounded liquids’, ‘Interdisciplinary dialogue between physics and medicine’.
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