Cellular Automaton of Idealized Brain Tumor Growth Dynamics

Abstract

A novel cellular automaton model of proliferative brain tumor growth has been developed. This model is able to simulate Gompertzian tumor growth over nearly three orders of magnitude in radius using only four microscopic parameters. The predicted composition and growth rates are in agreement with a test case pooled from the available medical literature. The model incorporates several new features, improving previous models, and also allows ready extension to study other important properties of tumor growth, such as clonal competition. 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cellular automaton; Tumor modeling; Proliferative dynamics www.elsevier.com/locate/biosystems 1. Introduction The incidence of primary malignant brain tumors remains high. The majority consists of highgrade malignant neuroepithelial tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), with a median survival time of only 8 months (Black 1991; Whittle 1996). Tumors such as GBM have such a grim ou..