Mechanical Therapy as a Potential Green Way to Attack Cancer Disease

Abstract

Mechanical force is tightly connected to human health status, and the occurrence of disease can generally be ascribed to certain loss of force balance. However, the role of mechanical approaches in tumor therapy is largely neglected, while the currently available cancer prevention and treatment methods are generally either expensive or just cause too much side effect. In this article, we present a systematic interpretation on a promising strategy which was termed here as Mechanical Therapy for the first time based on the fact that mechanical force closely accompanies the whole life (growth and death) of a cell, and plays a crucial role in biological functions. In order to mold the mechanical force as a practical tool for cancer therapy, we expound the effects of the mechanical force related to the tumors from molecule to tissue level and evaluate its feasibility for treatment purpose. It can be conceived that given enough investigations, the mechanical therapy may generate big potential to open new windows for cancer prevention, relieving or even destroying if well administrated. As an easy going and convenient method, a systematic and thorough study of mechanical therapy may clarify more options for future clinical practices. Besides, when patients encounter various forces in daily life, they can at least identify the good or bad forces for a better and healthy life style based on the mechanisms thus disclosed.