Individual-based approaches to birth and death in avascular tumors

Dirk Drasdo and Stefan Höhme

Contact the author: Please use for correspondence this email.
Submission date: 19. Feb. 2002
published in: Mathematical and computer modelling, 37 (2003) 11, p. 1163-1175 
DOI number (of the published article): 10.1016/S0895-7177(03)00128-6
Bibtex
MSC-Numbers: 82C22, 82C80, 92C05, 92C50
PACS-Numbers: 87.18.-h, 87.68.+z
Keywords and phrases: avascular tumors, individual-based approach, off-lattice

Abstract:
In this paper we focus on the growth of avascular tumor spheroids in-vitro. We present a single-cell based approach that allows to link the model parameters to experimental accessible biomechanical and kinetic parameters and provides a potential, at least partly quantitative, description of growing avascular tumors in early growth stages not dominated by nutrient consumption. In our approach cells behave like elastic, attracting particles in a viscous environment with the additional capability of growth and division. We discuss how regimes of generic growth behavior may be identified. Regimes of generic system behavior seem in particular useful in classifying growing multicellular systems by certain characteristic features. To motivate the use of individual-based models we present computer simulations with our model on a chemotherapy-inspired death process.