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INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION TOOL
FOR TUMOR GROWTH SIMULATIONS
Rafal Wcislo
Department of Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland
Keywords:
Simulation, Visualization, Tumor growth, Angiogenesis.
Abstract:
We present the main requirements and ready-to-use components of the interactive visualization tool for mod-
eling of solid tumor proliferation. As the simulation engine it uses complex automata paradigm, which inte-
grates cellular automata with particle dynamics. To make it sufficiently fast for interactive visualization we
show that the system can be efficiently implemented on multicore workstations, with moderate number of pro-
cessors controlled by data parallel interface such as OpenMP. In the near future the system will be empowered
by a combined CPU and GPU computational environment. This in silico lab system is intended for medical
laboratories doing research in oncology and/or in anticancer drug design.
1 INTRODUCTION
There are many mathematical models of tumor
growth driven by the process of angiogenesis (Folk-
man, 1971; Castorina et al., 2009; Bellomo et al.,
2003; Chaplain, 2000; Preziozi, 2003; Mantzaris
et al., 2004; Lowengrub et al., 2010). The models fall
into four categories: (a) continuum models that treat
the endothelial cell (EC) and chemical species den-
sities as continuous variables that evolve according
to a reaction-diffusion system, (b) mechano-chemical
models that incorporate some of the mechanical ef-
fects of EC-ECM (extracellular matrix) interactions
(c) discrete, cellular automata or agent based mod-
els in which cells are treated as units which grow
and divide according to prescribed rules (d) hybrid
multiscale models involving processes from micro-to-
macroscale. Multiscale and multiphysic models rep-
resent the most advanced simulation methodologies.
In (Wcislo et al., 2009) we present the concept of
tumor growth model which is driven by particle dy-
namics (Haile, 1992; Dzwinel et al., 1999; Dzwinel
et al., 2000; Dzwinel et al., 2006; Kadau et al., 2004)
combined with a cellular automata paradigm (Hoek-
stra et al., 2007; Sloot and Kroc, 2009). In this article
we present a tool used for preparation and visualiza-
tion of such a simulation. At a certain stage the cre-
ation of that tool became crucial due to:
• A number of simulation parameters (physical as
well as chemical and biological characteristics of
tissues are defined by as many as a few dozen up
to a few hundred of parameters) which became
very inconvenient to modify manually in the text
file.
• The simulation is expected to consist of several
million of particles (depending on the modeling
there shall be either single cells or their clus-
ters together with the ECM) forming a three-
dimensional fragment consisting of a healthy tis-
sue, an array of blood vessels and a tumor. Thus
a tool that would make it possible to interactively
observe such a simulation would undoubtedly be-
come a significant aid for a researcher.
2 VISUALIZATION TOOL
Figure 1 presents the view of the main screen of the
visualization program.
2.1 Tissue Templates
The simulation program allows several types of tis-
sues to be present simultaneously (a typical situation
in the simulation is when there is a cancerous tissue
surrounded by a healthy one and the two are interwo-
ven with the network of blood vessels). Each tissue
has an array of characteristic features such as density,
an average size of cells, the rate of diffusion of partic-
ular substances (oxygen, TAF), oxygen requirements,
life span, resistance to oxygen deficiency, etc.
270
Wcislo R..
INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION TOOL FOR TUMOR GROWTH SIMULATIONS.
DOI: 10.5220/0003131402700273
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioinformatics Models, Methods and Algorithms (BIOINFORMATICS-2011), pages 270-273
ISBN: 978-989-8425-36-2
Copyright
c
2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)