Convection-Enhanced Intratumoral Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Modeling

Abstract

Convection-enhanced intratumoral drug delivery has received increased attention for solid cancer therapy. With CED delivery, the advantages of the use of lipid nanoparticles carrier have been shown in many experimental cancer therapy studies. Thus, the measurement of efficiency of intratumoral nanoparticles CED becomes more and more important. Herein, an improved mathematical modeling method using modified Navier-Stokes equations to simulate nanoparticle CED delivery has been formulated. We separately modeled the delivery procedure of fluid medium (generally water) and nanoparticles. Based on mass conservation equation and Navier-Stokes equations, we constructed the model of the water medium flowing in porous tumor tissue, and then used the convection equations to describe the nanoparticle delivery procedure. Using our intratumoral nanoparticle CED model, we analyzed the effects of the links between the nanoparticle drug delivery distribution and some dominating factors. This work is helpful for predicting the drug distribution in tumor and opens up new opportunities for using computer science to help clinical tumor treatment plan.