# Solid stress and tumour mechanobiology models

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/tumour-mechanics-models/  
OnCo record `tumour-mechanics-models` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Growing tumours compress themselves and their surroundings; models of this solid stress explain collapsed vessels, poor drug delivery and stiff stroma, and point to drugs that soften the tumour so treatment can get in.

## Summary

Stylianopoulos, Jain and colleagues measured and modelled the mechanical stress a growing tumour builds up as it pushes against and is confined by surrounding tissue; the stress compresses blood and lymphatic vessels, raising hypoxia and interstitial pressure and blocking drug delivery, especially in pancreatic cancer. Poroelastic and growth-mechanics models predict that reducing matrix stiffness or cell density, for example with losartan (an angiotensin blocker that reduces collagen), decompresses vessels; a phase 2 trial of losartan with chemoradiation in pancreatic cancer reported high resection rates, and larger trials followed. Mechanics also feeds models of invasion and of how stiffness itself signals cells to grow.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: emerging
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Tags: mathematical-model
- Principle: Tumour growth against confinement generates solid stress; continuum mechanics relates stress to vessel collapse and interstitial pressure, and matrix or cell depletion relieves it.
- Since: 2012
- Strengths: Explains drug-delivery failure in dense tumours; Suggests repurposable drugs (losartan); Measurable ex vivo and by elastography
- Limitations: Hard to measure in patients; Interventions modest so far; Parameters vary widely

## Sources

- Stylianopoulos and colleagues 2012, PNAS: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1213353109

## Connected records

- cancers: [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/), [Drug Discovery Platforms](https://onco.cc/fronts/drug-discovery/)
- technologies: [Anti-angiogenic therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/antiangiogenic/), [Cytotoxic chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/)

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