Speaker: Craig Thalhauser,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
Ph.D. candidate in Computational Biosciences
Arizona State University.

Title: Microscale and Macroscale Observations in a Two-State Model of Tumor Growth

Abstract:

In this talk, I will present the biological motivation, derivation, and results of numerical experiments, of a spatially explicit model of tumor growth at the cellular level. Proliferation is dependent upon nutrient delivered by a nearby blood microvessel. Developing tumors expand when cells sense a lack of sufficient space and engage a motility phenotype at the expense of continued proliferation. Numerical experiments on this model reveal interesting behaviors at both the microscopic and macroscopic level. At the macroscale level, we see bulk tumor growth prolifes which are similar to the vonBertanlaffy/Gompertzian growth models, even though no explicit mechanism of those types are assumed. At the microscale level, we observe interesting distributions of cells in the proliferative and motility classes which change as functions of different parameter regimes. These distributions are suggestive of a possible mechanism in the selection of pro-migratory cells early in the transition from primary tumor to metastatic cancer.