A predictive oncology framework – modeling tumor proliferation using a fem platform.

Simulation of solid tumor evolution involves many different phenomena, which occur at different scales. Among these, modeling at the macroscopic scale has a definite potential of application to optimize cancer treatment, when applied in a framework where actual diagnostic imaging are used to form the virtual volume subject to tumor proliferation. This Chapter presents an interpretation of the mathematical theory of Transport Phenomena as applied to avascular tumor proliferation in personalized organ volumes, employing a multi-species logistic growth/decay law and several governing partial differential equations, to virtualize tumor progress, the related production of necrosis and its interaction with therapy. The present approach is devised to gain deeper insights into the dynamics of tumor growth at the tissue scale and to develop predictive, quantitative mathematical models which can be used by clinicians as a decision support tool in the fight against cancer.