Higher-order models for glioma invasion: from a two-scale description to effective equations for mass density and momentum
For clinicians and researchers studying glioma progression, this provides a more accurate modeling framework for patient-specific predictions of tumor spread.
The authors derive macroscopic models for glioma invasion from a two-scale description, enabling DTI-based patient-specific predictions of tumor extent and dynamics. The higher-order moment closure methods outperform the diffusion limit in numerical simulations.
Starting from a two-scale description involving receptor binding dynamics and a kinetic transport equation for the evolution of the cell density function under velocity reorientations, we deduce macroscopic models for glioma invasion featuring partial differential equations for the mass density and momentum of a population of glioma cells migrating through the anisotropic brain tissue. The proposed first and higher order moment closure methods enable numerical simulations of the kinetic equation. Their performance is then compared to that of the diffusion limit. The approach allows for DTI-based, patient-specific predictions of the tumor extent and its dynamic behavior.