Cell motility in cancer, crucial events, criticality, and Lévy walks

The analysis of glioblastoma (GB) cell locomotion and its modeling inspired by Lévy random walks is presented herein. We study such walks occurring on a two-dimensional plane where the walk is similar to the motion of a bird flying with a constant velocity, but with random changes of direction in time. The intelligence of the bird is signaled by the instantaneous changes of flying direction, which become invisible in the time series obtained by projecting the 2D walk either on the x-axis or y-axis. We establish that the projected 1D time series share the statistical complexity of time series frequently used to monitor physiological processes, shedding light on the role of crucial events (CE-s) in pathophysiology. Such CE-s are signified by abrupt changes of flying direction which are invisible in the 1D physiological time series. We establish a connection between the complex scaling index δ generated by the CE-s through μR=2−δ, where μR is the inverse power law index of the probability density function of the time interval between consecutive failures of the process of interest. We argue that the identification of empirical indices along with their theoretical relations afford important measures to control cancer. •Motility of patient derived glioblastoma cells using Diffusion Entropy Analysis.•Random changes in direction of cells identified as crucial events.•1D projections of a 2D Lévy walk yields correct scaling with invisible CE-s.•Lévy walks generate IPL index μR, measure for duration of organization.