A Novel Method for Simulating the Extracellular Matrix in Models of Tumour Growth.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 109019, 11 pages doi:10.1155/2012/109019 Research Article A Novel Method for Simulating the Extracellular Matrix in Models of Tumour Growth Alina Toma,1, 2 Andreas Mang,1 Tina A. Schuetz,1, 3 Stefan Becker,1, 2 and Thorsten M. Buzug1 1 Institute of Medical Engineering, University of Lubeck, 23562 Lubeck, Germany ¨ ¨ 2 Centre of Excellence for Technology and Engineering in Medicine (TANDEM), University of Lubeck, 23562 Lubeck, Germany ¨ ¨ 3 Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Lubeck, 23562 Lubeck, Germany ¨ ¨ Correspondence should be addressed to Alina Toma, toma@imt.uni-luebeck.de and Thorsten M. Buzug, buzug@imt.uni-luebeck.de Received 17 April 2012; Revised 1 June 2012; Accepted 11 June 2012 Academic Editor: Quan Long Copyright © 2012 Alina Toma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A novel hybrid continuum-discrete model to simulate tumour growth on a cellular scale is proposed. The lattice-based spatiotemporal model consists of reaction-diffusion equations that describe interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment. The fundamental ingredients that are typically considered are the nutrient concentration, the extracellular