Universal principles of cell population growth follow from local contact inhibition

TL;DR

This paper unifies five classical tumor growth laws through a microscopic model based on contact inhibition, supported by agent-based simulations and experimental data analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a single microscopic framework that explains diverse tumor growth laws and their connection to contact inhibition mechanisms.

Findings

All five growth laws can be derived from a unified microscopic model.

Agent-based simulations support the theoretical framework.

Experimental data from in vitro cancer cell populations align with the model's predictions.

Abstract

Cancer cell populations often exhibit remarkably similar growth laws despite their heterogeneity. Explanations of universal cell population growth remain partly unresolved to this day. Here, we present a growth-law unification by investigating the connection between microscopic assumptions and the expected contact inhibition, which leads to five classical tumor growth laws: exponential, radial growth, fractal growth, generalized logistic, and Gompertzian growth. All five can be seen as manifestations of a single microscopic model. Agent-based simulations substantiate our theory, and we can explain differences in growth curves in experimental data from em in vitro cancer cell population growth. Thus, our framework offers a possible explanation for many mean-field laws used to empirically capture seemingly unrelated cancer or microbial growth dynamics. Our results highlight that the interplay between contact inhibition and other assumptions (e.g., well-mixed) can influence our quantitative understanding of how cancer cells grow and, in turn, how they may interact.