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Similar self-organizing scale-invariant properties characterize early cancer invasion and long range species spread
Occupancy of new habitats through dispersion is a central process in nature.
In particular, long range dispersal is involved in the spread of species and
epidemics, although it has not been previously related with cancer invasion, a
process that involves spread to new tissues. We show that the early spread of
cancer cells is similar to the species individuals spread and that both
processes are represented by a common spatio-temporal signature, characterized
by a particular fractal geometry of the boundaries of patches generated, and a
power law-scaled, disrupted patch size distribution. We show that both
properties are a direct result of long-distance dispersal, and that they
reflect homologous ecological processes of population self-organization. Our
results are significant for processes involving long-range dispersal like
biological invasions, epidemics and cancer metastasis.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure
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