Employing in-vivo molecular imaging in simulating and validating tumor growth

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2013:2013:5533-6. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2013.6610803.

Abstract

During the last decades, especially via the EU initiative related to the Virtual Physiological Human, significant progress has been made in advancing "in-silico" computational models to produce accurate and reliable tumor growth simulations. However, currently most attempts to validate the outcome of the models are either done in-vitro or ex-vivo after tumor resection. In this work, we incorporate information provided by fluorescence molecular tomography performed in-vivo into a mathematical model that describes tumor growth. The outcome is validated against tumor evolution snapshots captured in-vivo using advanced molecular probes in laboratory animals. The simulations are inline with the actual in-vivo growth and although alternative modeling parameters can lead to similar results challenging for additional microscopic information and imaging modalities to drive the in-silico models, they all show that hypoxia plays a dominant role in the evolution of the tumor under study.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Diagnostic Imaging
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Fluorescence
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Molecular Imaging / methods*
  • Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Reproducibility of Results