Entropy Production, Entropy Generation, and Fokker-Planck Equations for Cancer Cell Growth

Abstract

It is rather difficult to understand biological systems from a physics point of view, and understanding systems such as cancer is even more challenging. There are many factors affecting the dynamics of a cancer cell, and they can be understood approximately. We can apply the principles of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics to have a greater understanding of such systems. Very much like other systems, living systems also transform energy and matter during metabolism, and according to the First Law of Thermodynamics, this could be described as a capacity to transform energy in a controlled way. The properties of cancer cells are different from regular cells. Cancer is a name used for a set of malignant cells that lost control over normal growth. Cancer can be described as an open, complex, dynamic, and self-organizing system. Cancer is considered as a non-linear dynamic system, which can be explained to a good degree using techniques from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. We will also look at such a system through its entropy due to to the interaction with the environment and within the system itself. Here, we have studied the entropy generation versus the entropy production approach, and have calculated the entropy of growth of cancer cells using Fokker-Planck equations.