  With the progress of cancer, the macromolecules such as DNA, RNA, lipids,
etc. inside cells undergo spatial structural rearrangements and alterations.
Mesoscopic physics based optical partial wave spectroscopy (PWS) was recently
introduced to quantify changes in the nanoscale structural disorder in
biological cells. The measurement is done in a parameter termed as disorder
strength ( Ld) which represents the degree of nanoscale structural disorder
inside the cells. It was shown that cancerous cells have higher disorder
strength than the normal cells. In this work, using the PWS technique, we
analyzed the hierarchy of different types of prostate cancer cells by
quantifying their average disorder strengths. The results showed that increase
in the tumorigenicity level of prostate cancer is correlated with the increase
in the disorder strength Ld. Furthermore, using the Ld parameter we also
analyzed docetaxel chemo-resistance attribute of these prostate cancer cells,
in comparison to docetaxel chemo-sensitive cancer cells. Our results show that
chemo drug resistive cancer cells have mutations to more aggressive, or
increased in Ld values relative to the chemo sensitive cancer cells. Potential
applications of the Ld parameter for determining the effectiveness of the
chemotherapy drug on cancer cells are discussed.
