Sep 1, 2008
A Computational Framework for Modelling Solid Tumour Growth
Bryn A. Lloyd, Dominik Szczerba, Markus Rudin and Gábor Székely, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Volume 366, Issue 1879, pp. 3301–3318, September 2008
In this paper an integrative framework to simulate tumour growth, including those model components which are considered to be of major importance is presented. First, issues are addressed at the tissue level, where the phenomena are modelled as continuum partial differential equations. This is extended with relevant components at the cellular or even sub-cellular level in a vertical fashion. An implementation of this framework is presented, covering the major processes and treat the mechanical deformation due to growth, the biochemical response to hypoxia, blood flow, oxygenation and the explicit development of a vascular system in a coupled way. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and its applicability to in silico studies of the influence of different treatment strategies (like the usage of novel anti-cancer drugs) for more effective therapy design.
