Universal principles of cell population growth follow from local contact inhibition
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
- 2Stony Brook Cancer Center, Stony Brook School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
- 3Department of Theoretical Biology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön 24306, Germany
- 4Department of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel 24105, Germany
Abstract
Cancer cell populations often exhibit remarkably similar growth laws despite their heterogeneity. Explanations of universal cell population growth remain partly unresolved to this day. Here, we present a growth-law unification by investigating the connection between the microscopic assumptions that affect the expected contact inhibition leading to five classical tumor growth laws: exponential, radial growth, fractal growth, generalized logistic, and Gompertzian growth. All five can be seen as manifestations of a single microscopic model. Agent-based simulations substantiate our theory, and we can explain differences in growth curves in experimental data from in vitro cancer cell population growth. Thus, our framework offers a possible explanation for many mean-field laws used to empirically capture seemingly unrelated cancer or microbial growth dynamics. Our results highlight that the interplay between contact inhibition and other assumptions (e.g., well-mixed) can influence our quantitative understanding of how cancer cells grow and, in turn, how they may interact.
Related
- Universal Formulas for de Jonquières Loci and Equivariant Contact Problems
- Ball growth at all scales in universal covers of short metric graphs
- Partial Localization and Multifractality in Heterogeneous Population Growth with Resetting
- Fluctuations and multifractality in stochastic models of interface growth and population dynamics
- Exact orbifold fillings of contact manifolds
BibTeX
@article{kimmel2026universal,
title = {{Universal principles of cell population growth follow from local contact inhibition}},
author = {Gregory J. Kimmel and Sadegh Marzban and Mehdi Damaghi and Arne Traulsen and Alexander R.A. Anderson and Jeffrey West and Philipp M. Altrock},
journal = {iScience},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2026.115953},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.115953},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Universal principles of cell population growth follow from local contact inhibition
AU - Gregory J. Kimmel
AU - Sadegh Marzban
AU - Mehdi Damaghi
AU - Arne Traulsen
AU - Alexander R.A. Anderson
AU - Jeffrey West
AU - Philipp M. Altrock
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/15
JO - iScience
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115953
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.115953
AB - Cancer cell populations often exhibit remarkably similar growth laws despite their heterogeneity. Explanations of universal cell population growth remain partly unresolved to this day. Here, we present a growth-law unification by investigating the connection between the microscopic assumptions that affect the expected contact inhibition leading to five classical tumor growth laws: exponential, radial growth, fractal growth, generalized logistic, and Gompertzian growth. All five can be seen as manifestations of a single microscopic model. Agent-based simulations substantiate our theory, and we can explain differences in growth curves in experimental data from in vitro cancer cell population growth. Thus, our framework offers a possible explanation for many mean-field laws used to empirically capture seemingly unrelated cancer or microbial growth dynamics. Our results highlight that the interplay between contact inhibition and other assumptions (e.g., well-mixed) can influence our quantitative understanding of how cancer cells grow and, in turn, how they may interact.
SN - 2589-0042
ER -