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Mathematical Models Of Prevascular Tumor Growth By Diffusion, Sophia A. Maggelakis

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

A study of several complementary mathematical models that describe the early, prevascular stages of solid tumor growth by diffusion under various simplifying assumptions is presented. The advantage of these models is that their degree of complexity is relatively low, which ensures fairly straightforward comparisons with experimental or clinical data (as it becomes available), yet they are mathematically sophisticated enough to capture the main biological phenomena of interest.

The tumor growth and cell proliferation rate are assumed to depend on the local concentrations of nutrients and inhibitory factors. The effects of geometry and spatially non-uniform inhibitor production and non-uniform nutrient consumption …