ADVECTION-DIFFUSION MODELS FOR SOLID TUMOUR EVOLUTION IN VIVO AND RELATED FREE BOUNDARY PROBLEM

Abstract

This paper proposes a multicell model to describe the evolution of tumour growth from the avascular stage to the vascular one through the angiogenic process. The model is able to predict the formation of necrotic regions, the control of mitosis by the presence of an inhibitory factor, the angiogenesis process with proliferation of capillaries just outside the tumour surface with penetration of capillary sprouts inside the tumour, the regression of the capillary network induced by the tumour when angiogenesis is controlled or inhibited, say as an effect of angiostatins, and finally the regression of the tumour size. The three-dimensional model is deduced both in a continuum mechanics framework and by a lattice scheme in order to put in evidence the relation between microscopic phenomena and macroscopic parameters. The evolution problem can be written as a free-boundary problem of mixed hyperbolic–parabolic type coupled with an initial-boundary value problem in a fixed domain.