Abstract
BackgroundThere are many differences between healthy tissue and growing tumor tissue, including metabolic, structural and thermodynamic differences. Both structural and thermodynamic differences can be used to follow the entropy differences in cancerous and normal tissue. Entropy production is a bilinear form of the rates of irreversible processes and the corresponding "generalized forces". Entropy production due to various dissipation mechanisms based on temperature differences, chemical potential gradient, chemical affinity, viscous stress and exerted force is a promising tool for calculations relating to potential targets for tumor isolation and demarcation.MethodsThe relative importance of five forms of entropy production was assessed through mathematical estimation. Using our mathematical model we demonstrated that the rate of entropy production by a cancerous cell is always higher than that of a healthy cell apart from the case of the application of external energy. Different rates of entropy production by two kinds of cells influence the direction of entropy flow between the cells. Entropy flow from a cancerous cell to a healthy cell transfers information regarding the cancerous cell and propagates its invasive action to the healthy tissues. To change the direction of entropy flow, in addition to designing certain biochemical pathways to reduce the rate of entropy production by cancerous cells, we suggest supplying external energy to the tumor area, changing the relative rate of entropy production by the two kinds of cells and leading to a higher entropy accumulation in the surrounding normal cells than in the tumorous cells.ConclusionThrough the use of mathematical models it was quantitatively demonstrated that when no external force field is applied, the rate of entropy production of cancerous cells is always higher than that of healthy cells. However, when the external energy of square wave electric pulses is applied to tissues, the rate of entropy production of normal cells may exceed that of cancerous cells. Consequently, the application of external energy to the body can reverse the direction of the entropy current. The harmful effect brought about by the entropy flow from cancerous to healthy tissue can be blocked by the reversed direction of entropy current from the irradiated normal tissue around the tumor.
Highlights
Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible ProcessesInterscience Publishers, John Willey, New York; 1967:1-50. 2
It can be proved that σs contains five terms [1,2]: 1, σs(1) the thermal flux driven by a temperature difference; 2, σs(2) the diffusion current driven by a chemical potential gradient; 3, σs(3) the chemical reaction rate driven by a Gibbs energy decrease; 4, σs(4) the velocity gradient coupled with viscous stress; 5, σs(5) the dissipation due to the work completed by an external force field
The entropy flow from a normal to a cancerous cell carries the information of the healthy cell, while the entropy flow in the opposite direction carries the harmful information on the cancerous cell
Summary
Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible ProcessesInterscience Publishers, John Willey, New York; 1967:1-50. 2. Since the living organism is a chemical engine in which a series of chemical reactions take place one by one in an appropriate sequence, the energy transfer in an organism in normal state is so efficient that the entropy production is minimized. This means that the minimal entropy production theorem can be generalized to healthy cells [4]. The related phenomena in order-disorder transitions, for example, the microvascularization [6] and syntactic structure analysis of pleural tumors [7] and chromosal alterations in the non-neoplastic bronchial mucose [8] may be studied from the aspect of entropy production. We shall prove that the rate of entropy production in normal cells is always lower than that in a cancerous cell if no external force field is applied [10]
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