{
  "abstract": "Tumor progression is shaped by a continuous competition between malignant expansion and immune access within the surrounding microenvironment. Although spatial assays can reveal where T cells accumulate, most current approaches remain descriptive, treating immune organization as a static pattern and failing to infer the latent resistance structure that governs progression. Here we show that changes in peri-tumoral T-cell distribution can support noninvasive tomography of tumor progression. Using spatially resolved human breast tumor sections and controlled numerical experiments, we formulate immune-tumor interaction within a mean-field game framework in which T cells act as agents responding to a heterogeneous microenvironment while the tumor shapes an equivalent barrier field that restricts infiltration. This framework converts boundary enrichment, layered blocking and core penetration patterns into a constrained inference problem whose solution yields quantitative maps of immune exclusion, barrier strength and progression-associated internal states. Forward simulations show that barrier geometry reshapes immune-density equilibria, and inference experiments show that closely related barrier fields can be recovered from immune-density observations under controlled and tissue-shaped proxy settings. By linking observable T-cell redistribution to latent microenvironmental resistance, this approach establishes a route toward noninvasive, repeatable assessment of tumor progression without direct biopsy of the underlying barrier structure.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Mathematics, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "L. Xu"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. Meng"
    },
    {
      "name": "W. Yin"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "H. Liu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5rg41qyx2rk8m.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.19.752909",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.19.752909v1.full",
  "id": "5rg41qyx2rk8m",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.19.752909v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "cancer biology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2611|Mathematical Biology Tumor Growth"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214306406",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.19.752909v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-19",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5rg41qyx2rk8m.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:23:47Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.19.752909",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.19.752909v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "biorxiv:cancer biology",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Noninvasive tomography of tumor progression via dynamical changes of T-cells in surrounding microenvironment",
  "title_text": "Noninvasive tomography of tumor progression via dynamical changes of T-cells in surrounding microenvironment",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:23:47Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/5rg41qyx2rk8m",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}