Spheroid Pasta – a Possible Mechanism of Cancer Promotion

In biology, spheroids are three-dimensional clusters of cells that aggregate into a spherical shape. After intercellular interactions, tumor cells generate adhesion molecules like cadherins and integrins on their surfaces, facilitating cell survival and enabling the formation of spheroids as a dense structure. Organoids are three-dimensional, highly complex mini-organs with specific functions. They derive from stem cells or progenitor cells from patient-derived normal or tumor tissue and are used for disease modelling and development. The mechanism of spheroid formation shares profound physical similarities with the globular folding of proteins and interaction between quarks in atomic nuclei. Spherical shape is attained due to minimization of the surface area at constant volume and thereby minimize the energy of interaction within the system. In neutron stars, the interactions between the constituents are predicted to attain peculiar self-assembled shapes that deviate from spherical. These structures are called nuclear pasta. Also in cancer, the shapes of spheroids are often significantly different from spheres seen in healthy cell cultures. In this contribution we introduce the biophysical origin of the so-called Differential Adhesion Hypothesis in spheroids, proteins and atomic nuclei, which states that cells will reorganize in such way to minimize the free energy of the surface and of the internal bonding.