A mathematical model of tumor growth and its response to single irradiation

作者：Yoichi Watanabe, E Dahlman, Kevin Leder, Susanta Kumar Hui · 发表于：Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.1186/s12976-016-0032-7 · 被引用次数：104 · 研究领域：Mathematical Biology Tumor Growth、Effects of Radiation Exposure、Thermoelastic and Magnetoelastic Phenomena

BACKGROUND: Mathematical modeling of biological processes is widely used to enhance quantitative understanding of bio-medical phenomena. This quantitative knowledge can be applied in both clinical and experimental settings. Recently, many investigators began studying mathematical models of tumor response to radiation therapy. We developed a simple mathematical model to simulate the growth of tumor volume and its response to a single fraction of high dose irradiation. The modelling study may provide clinicians important insights on radiation therapy strategies through identification of biological factors significantly influencing the treatment effectiveness. METHODS: We made several key assumptions of the model. Tumor volume is composed of proliferating (or dividing) cancer cells and non-dividing (or dead) cells. Tumor growth rate (or tumor volume doubling time) is proportional to the ratio of the volumes of tumor vasculature and the tumor. The vascular volume grows slower than the tumor by introducing the vascular growth retardation factor, θ. Upon irradiation, the proliferating cells gradually die over a fixed time period after irradiation. Dead cells are cleared away with cell clearance time. The model was applied to simulate pre-treatment growth and post-treatment radiation response of rat rhabdomyosarcoma tumors and metastatic brain tumors of five patients who were treated with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery (GKSRS). RESULTS: By selecting appropriate model paramete...