Nutrient competition as a determinant for cancer growth

Abstract

Competition for available nutrients is known to be crucial for cancer development. Based on this fact, a model is proposed that can describe the manifold of morphologies and growth rates characteristic of tumoral growth. The formulation of a consistent set of rules governing the microscopic interactions leads to a system of coupled nonlinear iteration equations. These equations contain both deterministic and stochastic terms and are amenable to direct numerical simulation. They allow us to test the effects of such parameters as the availability, diffusivity, and binding rate of nutrients and the mobility, death, and multiplication rates of cancer cells on tumor morphology and development. Detailed numerical solutions are presented.